UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


THi:  SLOSS  COLLKCTION  OF  THE  SEMITIC   EIBKAKV 
OF  THE  LXIVEKSITV  OF  CALIFOKMA. 


(IIF-T  OI 

LOUIS  SLOSS. 

FEbRUARY,    1897. 

Acct^ssio/i  No.  ^^S^OO'}   .     Chns  No. 


Z 


X 


p. 


m 


THE  JEWISH  QUESTION 


AND 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  JEWS 


The  Abolition  of  Slavery  and  the  Renaissance  are/ 
as  much  a  fatherland  as  are  England,  Germany^, 
France^  or  the  United  States  \ 

There  is  the  strong  bond  of  Humanity ;  but  there 
also  is  the  golden  chain  of  Gentlemanity 


V 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1894 


-^ 


Copyright,  1894,  by  Harper  &  Brothers 

All  rights  reserved. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAOK 

I.    THE    JEWISH   QUESTION 8 

II.    THE    MISSION    OP   THE    JEWS 52 

III.  THE   SOCIAL    POSITION    OF    THE    JEWS    IN   THE    MIDDLE 

AGES    AND    MODERN   TIMES 100 

IV.  THE    INFLUENCE    OF  .THE    JEWS    UPON    THE    CIVILIZA- 

\ 

TION    OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGES 197 

V.    HEBRAIC    SOCIETIES 249 

VI.    MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS 265 

VII.    M.  ANATOLE    LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND   THE    JEWS  .       .       .  303 


THE  JEWISH  QUESTION 


i 


THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

Is  there  a  Jewish  Question  at  all  ?  I  main- 
tain that  there  is  not,  in  the  sense  in  which 
we  speak  of  a  Labor  Question,  or  the  Eastern 
Question,  or  the  Home  Rule  Question.  For 
the  matter  upon  which  it  is  proposed  to  estab- 
lish a  question  does  not  present  a  unity;  it  is 
split  up,  and  has  its  different,  almost  opposed, 
attributes  in  itself  according  to  the  circum- 
stances among  which  it  has  been  placed.  So 
the  Jews  differ  essentially  among  each  other 
according  to  the  nations  among  which  they 
live  and  have  lived  for  ages,  the  different 
classes  among  them  in  these  various  commu- 
nities, the  several  occupations  they  follow,  and 
tastes  they  possess.  In  political  life  they  can- 
not be  said  to  form  one  party,  to  give  a  dis- 
tinct shading  to  any  party,  or  to  enable  party 
politicians  to  appeal  to  them  as  a  body — and 
herein   they  differ  from    many  of  the  other 


4  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

elements  which  make  up  the  life  of  a  colony 
or  a  younger  state.  For  any  practical  pur- 
pose of  political  or  social  generalization  within 
the  Occidental  states  and  communities  the 
unity  which  the  Jews  are  supposed  to  pre- 
sent is  illusory,  even  when  there  is  not,  as 
there  generally  is,  a  definite  animus  bedim- 
ming  the  eyes  of  those  who  would  raise  the 
Question. 

Of  late,  attempts  have  been  made  to  raise 
such  a  general  question,  or  to  set  on  foot 
so-called  "Anti-Semitic  movements."  But 
they  really  are  ridiculously  unimportant  when 
viewed  in  the  light  of  the  serious  questions 
which  move  the  main  currents  of  modern  his- 
tory, and  may  stir  humanity  to  the  depths  of 
its  existence.  They  may  no  doubt  be  serious 
to  many  of  the  Jews  themselves,  causing  them 
some  annoyance  for  the  time,  if  not  deeper 
emotions,  or  even  physical  suffering.  But 
they  are  artificial  and  false  in  their  origin 
and  ephemeral  in  their  vitality,  and  they  are 
doomed  to  die  soon.  One  need  but  examine 
the  existing  movements  in  Kussia,  Germany, 
and  France  to  see  at  once  how  little  they  have 
to  do  with  what  is  essential  to  Judaism  or  the 
Jews.    The  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Kussia 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  *  5 

— tlioiigli  no  doubt  religious  superstition  may 
have  furnished  an  element  of  intensity  to  the 
spirit  of  persecution — emanates  from  a  more 
positive  source  of  Russian  political  life,  name- 
ly, the  consistent  carrying  out  of  what  may  be 
called  a  "  national "  policy.  Their  watchword 
is  "  Russia  for  the  Russians. "  And  even  the 
term  Russian  admits  of  various  definitions, 
and  may  mean  only  those  who  conform  in 
body,  soul,  and  thought  to  the  ruling  powers 
of  Russia  at  this  present  moment.  Whatever 
body  of  men  does  not  conform  to  the  defini- 
tion of  Russian  as  held  by  those  who  now 
rule  that  country  is  looked  upon  as  a  destruc- 
tive growth  upon  the  main  stem  of  national 
life,  and  has  to  be  extirpated  and  cast  away — 
if  such  destruction  and  removal  are  possible. 
Siberia  is  the  repository  for  the  Russian  sub- 
jects who  manifest  inconvenient  political  opin- 
ions. The  dissentient  Russians  and  the  Poles 
are  oppressed,  and  often  expelled.  If  they 
dared,  they  would  to-morrow  expel  all  the 
Germans  resident  in  Russia ;  and,  should  cir- 
cumstances make  it  less  dangerous,  these  would 
certainly  be  thus  expelled — in  fact,  Russia 
would,  if  it  could,  and  may  some  day,  expel 
all  foreigners  of  whatever  nationality.     I  am 


6  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

inclined  to  believe  that  of  all  foreign  elements 
in  Russia  the  German  residents,  and  those  of 
German  extraction,  are  most  thoroughly  hated 
by  the  Russian  people ;  and  to  them  would  be 
attributed,  even  more  than  to  the  Jews,  the 
charge  of  fattening  at  the  expense  of  the  sus- 
tenance belonging  to  the  people.  But  the  Ger- 
mans residing  in  Russia  have  a  powerful  gov- 
ernment at  home  w^ith  w^hom  the  Russians 
must  reckon ;  while  the  Jews  have  no  such 
potent  protectors.  Thus  a  valiant,  chivah'ous 
autocracy  finds  it  more  becoming  to  hurl  its 
brutal  force  against  the  Jews.  The  Jews, 
moreover,  have  been  permanently  established 
in  the  country,  some  of  them  perhaps  longer 
than  many  orthodox  Russian  subjects ;  while 
the  Germans  in  Russia  are  professedly  there 
as  aliens  whose  immediate  object  is  gain,  and 
nothing  more.  At  all  events,  the  action  of 
Russia  has  the  advantage  of  a  consistent  pol- 
icy, is  in  keeping  with  an  autocracy  wdiich 
has  never  claimed  to  foster  freedom  and  to 
respect  and  develop  the  rights  of  man,  and 
does  not,  to  my  mind,  compare  in  proportion 
with  the  w^rongs  done  to  the  Jewish  people 
by  members  of  civilized  society  in  other  Euro- 
pean states.    Look  at  the  Anti-Semitic  parties 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  7 

in  Germany  and  France,  and  the  absurd  con- 
tradiction will  at  once  stare  you  in  the  face. 
They  present  but  a  superficial,  opportunist 
movement  with  no  real  motive  power.  In 
Germany  they  are  now  allied  with  the  ex- 
treme conservative  party,  in  France  with  the 
ultra -radicals.  The  Prussian  land -owner  is 
afraid  of  a  liberal  movement  which  might 
lead  to  the  repeal  of  '^  corn -laws,"  and  this 
would  take  from  him  the  protection  which  he 
requires  not  to  become  bankrupt.  The  ultra- 
conservative  does  thus  not  hesitate  to  throw 
himself  into  the  arms  of  an  Ahlwardt,  a  polit- 
ical adventurer  who  unfurls  the  banner  of 
anti-Semitism  to  fight  the  battle  of  the  con- 
servative. On  the  other  hand,  a  small  group 
of  ultra- radicals  in  France  raise  the  anti- 
Semite's  war  cry  to  fight  the  conservatives. 
Finally,  the  Emperor  of  Russia  is  dissatisfied 
with  the  socialistic  and  nihilistic  tendencies  of 
the  Jews.  These  phenomena  are  really  child- 
ish in  their  transparent  insincerity. 

The  anti-Semitic  movements  are  only  futile 
attempts  to  delay,  or  to  divert  the  course  of,  the 
great  and  serious  movements  which  threaten 
to  change  the  present  state  of  our  economical, 
social,  and  political  life.    If  a  Bismarck  or  the 


8  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION" 

Russian  Czar  or  a  political  adventurer  cries 
out,  "Here  are  the  Jews,  they  are  the  bankers 
and  capitalists  who  covet  our  money,"  or, 
"  The  Jews  are  at  the  bottom  of  modern  social- 
istic theories  and  practices  —  repress  them!" 
that  may  for  the  moment  satisfy  the  lower  in- 
stincts of  a  vast  number  of  people  and  lead  to 
a  loud  clamor — perhaps  even  violent  action ; 
but  it  will  not  help  the  solution  of  modern 
economical  problems.  Capital  and  Jew  are 
not  synonymous  terms,  though  there  may  be 
several  Jewish  financiers  like  the  Rothschilds ; 
nor  are  any  Jews  or  persons  the  cause  of  the 
socialistic  movement,  though  Ferdinand  La- 
salle  and  Karl  Marx,  the  intellectual  founders 
of  the  movement,  were  Jews.  But  there  are, 
proportionally,  as  many  Jewish  tradesmen  and 
bread-winners  who  aspire  to  become  Roths- 
childs as  there  are  non-Jewish  bread-winners 
of  all  persuasions  and  nationalities  whose  aspi- 
rations lie  in  the  same  direction,  and  are  equally 
remote  from  a  full  consummation  of  these  de- 
sires. And  there  are  in  proportion  as  many 
good  Jewish  hourgeois  who  fear  the  red  flag  as 
there  are  Christian  burghers  who  fear  social- 
ism. In  my  numerous  wanderings  in  different 
countries  I  have  heard  the  most  contradictory 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 


grounds  for  anti-Semitic  feeling,  all  pointing  to 
the  greatest  diversity  of  occupation  and  char- 
acteristics among  the  Jews :  now  they  are 
charged  because  tliey  follow  with  so  much  suc- 
cess the  ordinary,  legitimate  mercantile  and  in- 
dustrial occupations,  the  profession  of  medi- 
cine, the  law,  now  literature  and  journalism, 
now  music ;  again  they  fill  the  chairs  of  science 
in  the  German  universities,  or  even  become 
leaders  in  European  statesmanship.  One  may 
be  opposed  to  tlie  German  republicanism  of 
Heine  and  Lasalle,  or  the  toryism  of  Disraeli, 
or  the  patriotism  of  Gambetta ;  but  one  can- 
not well  be  opposed  to  the  views  of  the  one 
without  approving  of  the  opposite  views  of 
the  other — and  they  were  all  Jews.  I  have 
still  to  learn  that  there  is  anything  inlierently 
bad  in  the  establishment  of  factories  and  mer- 
cantile houses,  in  the  vocation  of  a  doctor,  of 
a  lawyer,  of  a  man  of  science  or  letters  or 
art — nor  even  do  I  see  anything  wrong  in 
journalism  as  such.  Where  tlie  bitterness 
comes  in  is  in  the  fact  that  success  creates 
jealousy,  and  that  in  all  these  walks  of  life  the 
Jews  attain  a  high  degree  of  excellence  and 
prominence.  I  have,  on  several  occasions, 
heard  anti-Semites  summarize  their  vapid  argu- 


10  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

ments  by  the  naive  statement  that  the  Jews 
were  too  superior  for  unprotected  competi- 
tion. But  such  jealousy  is  more  readily  ac- 
counted for  than  it  is  justified.  Never  yet  in 
the  world's  history  has  excellence  brought 
lasting  discredit  upon  those  who  possess  it. 
I  am  sufficiently  optimistic  and  have  enough 
faith  in  the  good  judgment  of  humanity 
(allowing  it  time)  to  believe  that  prominence 
in  any  legitimate  sphere  of  life  ultimately 
brings  high  esteem  to  the  individuals  or  the 
social  group  possessed  of  it.  At  all  events, 
in  the  saner  and  brighter  chapters  of  the 
world's  history  excellence  has  proved  a  desir- 
able quality. 

No,  the  political  palliatives  will  not  stay  the 
progress  of  disease.  The  mob  to  whom  we 
may  hurl  the  bone  of  '' Jewish  capital"  will 
not  be  kept  from  biting,  and  will  not  thus  sat- 
isfy its  hunger.  Nay,  this  may  merely  whet 
its  appetite  and  sharpen  its  teeth  to  attack  the 
body  to  which  this  bone  of  capital  belongs. 
The  other  bankers  and  capitalists,  the  bour- 
geois^ the  country  squire,  who  call  upon  racial 
and  religious  prejudice  and  hatred  in  fear  of 
their  own  safety,  may  find  that  their  oppo- 
nents cannot  be  deceived  by  such  feeble  duplic- 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  11 

ity.  We  may  have  little  barbarous  ejDisodes  of 
narrow  vindictiveness  and  brutal  passion  in 
wliicli  the  scum  of  modern  society  will  always 
be  ready  to  join  in  the  survival  of  that  side  of 
mediseval  chivalry  which  led  the  knight,  high 
astride  on  his  trusty  charger,  secure  in  his  coat 
of  mail  and  chain  armor,  with  long,  well- 
poised  lance,  to  ride  among  a  host  of  unarmed 
men,  women,  and  children,  and  to  take  their 
money  as  well  as  their  lives.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  educated  radicals  will  remember 
from  whom  they  got  their  teaching,  and  will 
know  that  their  enemies  cannot  be  classified 
by  nationalities  or  fictitious  races. 

All  these  anti-Semitic  movements  will  spend 
themselves  in  a  short  time.  The  cause  of  any 
immediate  success  such  party  movement  may 
have  lies  in  the  nature  of  parliamentary  gov- 
ernment. It  is  due  to  the  disproportionate 
strength  and  influence  of  even  a  small  faction 
which  presents  a  solid  mass  in  relation  to  the 
two  main  contending  parties.  Herein  lies  the 
deplorable  strength  of  all  "faddist"  move- 
ments. Each  one  of  the  two  main  parties  in 
a  parliamentary  government  where  majorities 
are  small  has  to  count  with  any  third  party, 
however  unimportant  the  inspiring  idea,  and 


12  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

however  small  the  number  of  citizens  which  it 
represents.  There  is  no  idea,  however  ridicu- 
lous or  immoral,  which  cannot  claim  some  vo- 
taries ;  and  if  these  choose  to  band  together 
and  to  form  a  party,  they  can  gain  a  parlia- 
mentary power  out  of  all  proportion  to  their 
representative  position  in  the  nation.  This  is 
a  problem  and  a  difficulty  in  representative 
government  which  wise  men  will  have  to 
grapple  with. 

Besides  these  ephemeral '' movements"  with 
which  the  Jews  have  to  contend,  there  no 
doubt  also  exists  a  certain  amount  of  preju- 
dice against  them,  generally  among  ignorant 
people.  These  people  are  chiefly  ignorant  of 
history,  especially  the  history  of  the  Jews,  and 
are  of  a  narrow,  provincial  cast  of  mind  which 
requires  some  form  of  prejudice  as  its  normal 
food.  Many  people  must  have  somebody  to 
be  jealous  of  and  to  hate  to  preserve  the  nor- 
mality of  their  generally- diseased  emotional 
nature;  and  though  not  all  of  these  require  the 
intensity  of  an  individual  object  for  such  dis- 
approval or  hatred,  there  are  but  few  who 
would  forego  the  luxury  of  a  "  pet  aversion  " 
expressed  in  the  general  terms  of  a  social 
group  or  a  nationality.     National  prejudices 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  13 

are  natural  to  us  so  long  as  nationalities  assert 
themselves ;  and  I  venture  to  say  that  every 
nationality  becomes  distasteful  and  offensive 
when  it  becomes  obtrusive.  This  is  especial- 
ly the  case  when  such  a  nationality  is  not 
focussed  in  the  harmonious  setting  of  its  local 
surroundings,  where  it  naturally  becomes  sub- 
ordinated as  a  part  of  a  complex  and  organic 
image  with  dramatic  justification  of  its  main 
characteristics. 

To  use  a  trite  simile  :  Mutton  and  beef 
are  good  meat  with  each  its  own  quality ; 
but  mutton  which  asserts  its  own  flavor  too 
strongly  becomes  "  sheepy  "  and  beef  becomes 
"  beefy  " — both  offensive  to  the  palate.  Es- 
pecially when  seen  in  their  own  country,  an 
Englishman,  a  Frenchman,  a  German,  an  Ital- 
ian, or  an  American  are  fine  types  of  human- 
ity. But  an  Englishman  (especially  abroad) 
who  continually  causes  the  British  lion  to  roar, 
who  speaks  of  "foreigners,"  w^ho  asserts  his 
national  costume,  manners,  and  habits  in  and 
out  of  place  —  a  John-'bullying  Englishman 
can  be  very  offensive.  A  very  French  French- 
man, who  maintains  the  appearance  and  manner 
of  his  boulevards,  grasoiiilles  his  r's  in  speak- 
ing of  gloire^  bows  gracefully  and  says  pretty 


14  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

tilings  full  of  esjyrit^  may  be  irritating  if  lie 
be  not  amusing  in  a  manner  which  he  would 
resent  were  he  conscious  of  the  effect  pro- 
duced in  others.  We  do  not  call  this  French, 
but  Frenchy.  A  German  who  with  tight  trou- 
sers, generally  angular  clothes  and  manners, 
claps  his  heels  together,  raises  his  glass  of  beer 
or  wine,  and,  in  a  military  or  would-be  hur- 
schikose  style,  talks  of  the  Vaterland  and  its 
glory,  of  German  Gemutliliclikeit  and  Treue^ 
produces  an  effect  in  which  ungenuineness  is 
mixed  with  coarseness.  So  with  the  Italian 
who  gesticulates  and  rolls  his  eyes  and  re- 
minds us,  if  not  of  the  organ-grinder,  at  least 
of  the  primo  tenore  of  a  second-class  opera ; 
so,  too,  with  the  American,  whether  from  the 
state  of  wooden  nutmegs  or  from  the  far 
West,  who  constantly  spreads  the  eagle  and 
waves  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and  with  acrid 
nasality  descants  upon  the  advantages  of  eleva- 
tors and  ice-water,  and  whose  manifest  ideals 
are  smartness  or  shrewdness  and  push.  The 
offensiveness  of  such  national  characteristics 
will  be  admitted.  But  he  who  bases  his  gen- 
eral sympathy  or  antipathy  upon  such  isola- 
tion,'upon  the  caricatures  he  may  have  heard 
of  or  read  of,  without  a  deeper  knowledge  of 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  15 

the  national  life  in  its  natural  setting,  without 
a  wide  experience  of  individuals  typical  of  the 
nation,  without  some  knowledge  of  the  past 
history  and  the  national  genius  of  a  people, 
will  certainly  lay  himself  open  to  a  charge  of 
folly,  in  which  the  sense  of  truth  has  not  been 
highly  refined,  to  omit  for  the  moment  the 
moral  aspect  of  such  hasty  judgment. 

Of  course  the  Jews  may  manifest  charac- 
teristics which  may  be  offensive.  But  I  main- 
tain that,  owing  to  their  past  history,  and  their 
present  dispersion  and  variety  of  occupation, 
there  are  less  marked  characteristics  lending 
tliemselves  to  exaggeration  than  in  the  nation- 
alities I  have  mentioned.  Because  the  Jews 
are  dispersed  over  the  whole  world,  because  of 
the  prominent  part  they  play  in  the  history  of 
modern  civilization,  and  because  they  have  at- 
tributes and  characteristics,  real  or  imaginary, 
which  make  them  distinguishable  as  a  body, 
they  are  readily  talked  of  as  a  unit,  and,  what 
is  more,  readily  become  as  such  an  object  of  at- 
traction or  repulsion,  love  or  hate — more  readi-' 
ly,  as  things  human  go,  of  the  latter.  People  in 
general  are  not  over-conscientious  about  mak- 
ing assertions  and  generalizations.  And  the 
larger  or  more  complex  the  body  upon  which 


16  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

they  are  passing  judgment,  the  more  readily 
do  they  appear  to  make  up  their  minds.  The 
less  experience  a  person  has  of  the  world,  the 
less  he  has  travelled,  the  less  he  has  really  en- 
tered into  the  life  of  a  foreign  nation  —  in 
short,  the  less  he  knows  of  them,  the  more 
easily  will  he  descant  upon  their  strength  and 
weakness,  tlieir  virtues  and  vices.  The  young 
lady  who  has  exchanged  a  few  words  with  Eng- 
lish-speaking waiters  in  Germany  or  France, 
and  made  some  purchases  in  the  shops,  will 
tell  you  that  the  French  are  frivolous  and  im- 
moral ;  the  Germans,  heavy,  honest  but  dull ; 
the  English,  coarse  and  selfish ;  and  the  Ital- 
ians, musical  and  passionate.  Upon  no  group 
of  human  beings  will  most  people  feel  it  a 
duty  to  pass  an  opinion  more  readily  than 
upon  the  Jew.  "  I  do  not  like  the  Jews." 
"  The  Jews  only  care  for  money."  "  They 
are  ostentatious  or  greedy  or  revengeful  or 
generally  repulsive,"  or  whatever  attributes 
may  for  the  moment  most  correspond  to  the 
type  of  Shylock,  of  the  Wandering  Jew,  of 
Judas  Iscariot,  with  which  fiction  has  nur- 
tured narrow  imagination  ;  or  of  the  Old- 
clothes  Jew  who  may  have  been  seen  or 
heard  of.     We  do  not  only  meet  with  such 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTIOS^4^jrp3^-^* 

crude  expressions  of  personal  liking  or  dis- 
like, but  the  opinion  is  often  clad  in  the  garb 
of  well -matured  and  well-balanced  thought 
and  experience.  It  will  be  prefaced  by  ^'  You 
will  always  find  that  a  Jew,"  or  "  wherever 
they  live."  The  speaker  will  often  venture 
upon  the  past  history  of  these*  people,  and 
may  quote  you  a  passage  from  Tacitus,  or 
one  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  or  Luther. 
If  you  are  interested  in  this  matter,  or  in 
truth,  or  in  the  methods  by  means  of  which 
people  in  general  arrive  at  what  they  consid- 
er truth,  test  the  case,  and  simply  ask  the  per- 
son who  thus  generalizes,  how  many  Jews  he 
has  known  intimately,  or  even  superficially; 
and,  with  regard  to  the  past  history  of  this 
people,  ask  him  anything  about  the  fate  and 
position  of  the  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages.  I 
venture  to  predict,  as  has  been  my  experience 
since  this  subject  has  interested  me,  that  the 
result  will  be  as  invariable  as  it  will  be  dis- 
astrous to  the  claims  of  such  people  to  hold 
or  express  any  opinion  whatever  on  this  ques- 
tion. You  will,  in  most  cases  find,  first,  that 
they  have  known  no  Jew  intimately,  or  that 
among  their  intimate  acquaintances,  respected 
and  often  admired  by  them,  there  were  people 


18  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

of  wliose  Jewish  origin  they  were  not  aware. 
You  will  sometimes  find  that  the  generalizer 
himself  has,  without  knowing  it,  had  Jewish 
ancestors ;  and  sad  to  say,  with  the  most  vio- 
lent denunciator  you  may  find  that  he  has 
had  them,  and  knows  it.  As  regards  the 
mere  acquaintances,  you  will  find  that  his  em- 
phatic knowledge  is  based  upon  a  few  busi- 
ness connections  of  whose  successes  he  may 
sometimes  be  covetous.  He  may  have  seen 
an  Old-clothes  Jew  in  the  street,  or  may  have 
mistaken  some  poor  man  of  some  other  na- 
tionality for  one.  And  as  to  the  past  history 
of  these  people,  you  will  find  that  even  those 
well-read  in  history,  not  excluding  the  Jews 
themselves,  are  singularly  ignorant  of  the  fate 
and  history  of  the  Jews  since  the  destruction 
of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem.  Many  a  person, 
glowing  with  self-satisfaction  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  social  advantages  and  long  pedigree, 
will  stare  in  blank  amazement  and  increduli- 
ty if  you  tell  him  that  the  Jews,  not  to  speak 
of  the  Biblical  period,  but  of  modern  times, 
may  have  had  ancestors  wlio  present  a  contin- 
uous chain  of  highly-civilized  units,  conform- 
ing in  every  respect  to  the  term  "  gentlemen 
of  culture,"  during  periods  when  the  ancestors 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  19 

of  most  of  the  European  nobles  were  revelling 
in  coarseness,  or  ignorantly  bending  their  backs 
to  the  command  of  their  superiors.  I  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that,  though  the  mod- 
ern prejudice  is  often  influenced  by  envy  and 
superstition,  it  is  chiefly  caused  by  ignorance 
of  the  actual  state  of  the  Jews  in  modern 
times  and  of  their  history  in  the  past,  and 
that  this  ignorance  extends  often  to  the  most 
cultured  Jews  who  are  living  among  us.  It 
will  be  my  immediate  aim  to  contribute  to 
clearness  in  this  matter ;  to  fix  and  determine 
the  Jewish  question,  to  give  to  the  Jews  as 
well  as  to  others  some  facts  of  which  thej^ 
may  have  been  ignorant  before,  and,  at  all 
events,  to  put  the  main  questions  in  such  a 
form  that  they  may  be  set  to  thinking  seri- 
ously. 

Perhaps  the  strength  and  persistency  of  the 
Jewish  people  through  these  many  centuries 
of  suffering  and  martyrdom  have  lain  in  the 
fact  that  the  national  and  religious  character- 
istics were  inseparably  interwoven  with  one 
another.  This  blending  of  race  and  religion 
certainly  constitutes  the  main  difficulty  in 
arriving  at  a  proper  understanding  of  the 
Jewish  question  in  our  time,  and  of  fixing  the 


20  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

position  which  is  to  be  given  to  the  Jews,  and 
which  they  are  to^  hold  for  themselves  in  the 
social  and  political  life  of  modern  communi- 
ties. But  in  dealing  with  this  question  as  re- 
gards the  immediate  present  and  from  a  prac- 
tical point  of  view,  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  keep  these  two  elements  clearly  separate. 
The  unjustifiable  charges  which  are  brought 
against  the  Jews  by  their  enemies  are  often 
accompanied  by  a  system  of  shiftiness.  They 
have  been  and  are  sometimes  held  up  to  pop- 
ular hatred  on  a  purely  religious  ground,  as 
the  cause  of  Christ's  death,  when  really  the 
active  opposition  to  them  is  one  of  race. 
Again,  we  are  distinctly  informed  by  those 
claiming  the  spirit  of  religious  tolerance  that 
the  objection  to  them  is  purely  national, 
founded  upon  difference  of  race,  when  really 
the  cause  of  the  prejudice,  almost  innate,  at 
all  events  filtered  into  the  mind  with  the 
earliest  religious  teaching,  is  based  upon  sec- 
tarian differences.  In  the  same  country  we 
at  one  time  hear  them  charged  with  the  love 
of  money,  while  on  the  other  hand  they  are 
reproved  for  filling  the  chairs  of  learning,  and 
crowding  the  literary  and  liberal  professions, 
which  have  never  been  associated  with   the 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  21 

production  of  large  incomes.  Thrift,  moder- 
ation, desire  of  self-improvement,  intellectual 
acumen,  industry  and  commercial  ingenuity, 
which  are  commonly  supposed  to  be  social 
virtues,  reaping  praise  and  distinction,  are  at 
other  times  held  up  as  reasons  for  censure  and 
contempt  when  connected  with  this  people. 
All  these  points  it  is  our  duty  to  face  boldly 
and  to  see  clearly. 

The  prominence  which  has  been  given  to 
the  question  of  race  in  connection  with  the 
opposition  to  the  Jews  is  comparatively  of 
recent  date.  It  is  the  outcome  of  a  move- 
ment which,  I  believe,  had  its  origin  in  Ger- 
many, called  forth  by  the  definite  political 
needs  of  that  country,  but  which  has  had  far- 
reaching  and  enduring  effects  (I  believe  for  the 
bad),  even  after  the  immediate  aim  which 
evoked  it  had  been  fulfilled.  As  a  reaction 
against  the  policy  of  Metternich,  which  con- 
sisted in  neutralizing  the  restless  and  revolu- 
tionary forces  of  the  Austrian  Empire  by  op- 
posing different  nationalities  to  one  another, 
which  would  thus  keep  each  other  in  check, 
the  national  unity  of  Germany  was  attained 
by  means  of  the  idea  of  the  national  state, 
in  which  state  was  the  expression  of  the  unity 


22  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

of  the  people,  and  tins  unity  was  to  be  found 
in  a  common  origin,  a  common  race.  This 
idea  of  a  common  origin  naturally  lent  itself 
to  kindle  the  enthusiasm  of  a  people  whose 
political  weakness  lay  in  the  division  among 
many  petty  states  and  principalities.  And 
thus,  in  connection  with  the  romantic  spirit 
which  reigned  supreme  fifty  years  ago,  yet 
with  the  correct  political  instinct  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  artificial  and  theatrical  pose  of  the 
patriots  of  those  days,  the  pure  German  racial 
unity,  as  opposed  to  Komance  and  other  ene- 
mies without,  was  used  as  the  lever  which  was 
to  move  all  the  separate  blocks  (smoothly  pol- 
ished and  floridly  decorated  marbles  of  prince- 
ridden  principalities,  and  clumsy  unhewn 
stones  and  rubble -stones  of  independent 
cities  and  towns)  to  construct  one  huge  edi- 
fice of  the  German  Empire.  The  two  men 
who  in  modern  times  used  this  power  most 
effectually  were  Bismarck  and  Cavour. 

It  appears  to  me  a  blot  upon  modern  Ger- 
man academic  science,  to  which  the  world 
owes  so  much,  that,  within  the  faculty  of  his- 
tory and  political  science,  many  academic 
leaders  have  more  or  less  consciously  bent 
their  science  to  the  service  of  current  polit- 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  23 

ical  views.  Through  Germany  and  German 
historical  science,  France,  by  reaction  (main- 
taining the  claims  of  Romance  nations),  and 
by  sympathy  some  historians  in  England,  have 
followed  in  this  general  retrograde  movement 
towards  the  intensifying  and  stereotyping  of 
the  national  unit.  The  chief  difficulty  has 
arisen,  and  most  mischief  has  been  done,  by 
the  confusion  of  the  terms  race  and  nation. 
The  word  which  the  German  publicists  have 
made.  National- Staat^  must  not  be  confused, 
as  has  been  and  is  so  readily  done,  with  liass- 
enstaat.  The  National-Staat  is  one  which, 
we  might  say,  has  an  historical  unity,  while 
the  Rassenstaat  has  an  ethnological  unity. 
Germany  is  at  present  a  National-Staat,  The 
Austrian  and  Turkish  empires  are  not  such 
states ;  for  the  distinct  and  even  opposed  units 
of  peoples  in  these  empires  have  remained 
distinct  without  a  common  language,  and  they 
remain  conscious  of  the  separateness  of  their 
nationalities.  Bnt  national  unity  in  this  sense 
is  not  at  all  identical  with  racial  unity.  The 
actual  condition  of  the  German  people  in  our 
time,  and  its  history  for  the  last  centuries,  dis- 
tinctly confirm  its  claims  to  be  a  nation,  or 
one  people.     History,  language,  and  literature 


24  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

distinctly  show  it  to  be  such.  To  confirm 
this  we  need  not  go  for  support  to  the  science 
of  ethnology,  which  is  much  more  likely,  I 
may  venture  to  say  sure,  to  counteract  the 
impression  of  such  a  unity  ;  and,  at  all  events, 
if  you  attempt  to  follow  the  attractions  of  this 
science,  you  may  be  led  into  many  quagmires. 
Ethnology  is  a  most  interesting  scientific 
pursuit,  but  as  such  it  is  still  in  its  infancy; 
and  whatever  claims  to  universal  recognition 
its  generalizations  and  hypotheses  may  have, 
it  is  quite  premature  and  misleading  as  yet  to 
bring  them  into  anything  like  practical  appli- 
cation. But  such  unwarrantable  application 
has  been  and  is  being  made  every  day  with 
an  idea  or  a  desire  of  invoking  the  aid  of 
venerable  science  to  objects  that  are  far  from 
being  venerable  in  their  character,  namely, 
when  it  suits  a  definite  political  party,  or  even 
private  interests  and  purposes.  It  is  then  that 
unconsciously,  or  unperceived  by  those  who 
are  to  be  infiuenced,  the  idea  of  nation  is 
merged  into  the  idea  of  race.  Then  history 
is  ignored  in  favor  of  a  counterfeit  ethnol- 
ogy ;  then  it  is  no  more  the  Germany  welded 
together  by  common  suffering,  civilization, 
literature,  and  science  since  the  Middle  Ages, 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  25 

the  Germany  of  Lessing,  of  Goethe  and  Schil- 
ler, of  Fichte,  of  Heine ;  but  a  Germany  of 
pure  Germanenthum,  purely  Teutonic,  or,  at 
all  events,  Aryan.  But  the  serious  students  of  / 
ethnology  and  comparative  philology  them-i 
selves  are  becoming  more  and  more  cautious 
of  the  distinctions  and  classifications  that  have 
hitherto  been  current,  and  they  all  feel  that 
within  tlie  next  few  years  there  may  be  forth- 
coming fundamentally  different  hypotheses, 
even  with  regard  to  the  broadest  distinction 
of  human  races.  At  all  events,  it  is  absurd  to 
apply  the  results  of  this  science  to  the  practi- 
cal consideration  of  nations  as  they  are  now 
before  us.  I  certainly  venture  to  state  that 
there  is  not  one  country  in  the  West  of  Europe 
which  can  claim  purity  of  race  in  the  present 
day,  or  in  any  period  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Who  will  tell  what  tribes  the  people  now 
dwelling  in  Germany  are  made  up  of,  since 
the  barbarous  hordes  (Huns,  Goths,  and  Tar- 
tars) swept  through  their  country,  settled  here 
and  there,  to  be  followed  in  later  centuries  by 
invading  armies  practising  warfare  in  the  spirit 
of  their  time  ?"^ 

*  On  the  other  hand,  conif)are  the  pure  "Aryan,"  the  Ind- 
ian, even  of  the  highest  caste,  with  an  ordinary  European, 


26  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Travel  tlirongli  the  German  Empire  from 
north  to  south  and  east  to  west,  mingle  with 
the  crowds  in  the  streets  of  the  towns  and 
study  the  people  in  the  country,  and  I  venture 
to  say  that  if  you  could  for  a  moment  do  away 
with  the  similarity  of  dress  and  fashion,  and 
the  manner  of  wearing  beards,  and  accidental 
habits  of  the  present  day  which  may  come 
from  the  school  or  the  army,  and  if  you  could 
ignore  the  fact  that  they  all  speak  one  mod- 
ern German  tongue,  the  idea  of  race  and  unity 
among  them  would  forever  be  destroyed  in 
your  mind.  Nay,  even  as  it  is,  the  lounger  in 
the  streets  of  Berlin  may  differ  as  much  from 
the  Tyrolese  mountaineers  as  he  does  from  the 
cockney  of  London,  and  their  speech  may  be 
almost  as  unintelligible  to  one  another.  Still, 
there  is  an  actual  unity  among  the  people  of 
Germany ;  but  this  unity  is  the  modern  sum- 
mary of  living  conditions  to  which,  in  dying, 
the  past  ages  have  given  their  life,  and  has 

as  regards  color  and  general  physical  appearance,  and  as  re- 
gards his  intellectual  and  moral  habits  of  mind  and  life,  and 
then  compare  the  Western  Jew  (if  you  can  always  discern 
him)  with  his  Western  fellow-countrymen  of  Christian  per- 
suasion, and  the  absurdity  of  any  such  broad  classification  for 
practical  purposes  will  at  once  be  evident. 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  27 

nothing  to  do  with  the  Teutons,  or  the  Her- 
monduri,  or  the  Catts,  or  tlie  Franks.  The 
same  applies  to  England,  with  its  Picts  and 
Scots  and  Celts  and  Saxons  and  Danes  and 
Normans,  and  the  immigration  and  assimila- 
tion of  French,  Dutch,  German,  Spanish,  and 
Jewish  elements.  And  so  it  is  with  France, 
and  with  Italy,  and  with  Spain,  and  all  West- 
ern European  nations. 

And  now  when  we  look  at  the  Jews  from 
the  point  of  view  of  race  and  nationality,  we 
find  the  same  difficulty  in  arriving  at  a  clear 
conception  of  unity  which  will  serve  any  prac- 
tical purpose  and  application  in  the  present 
day.  I  will  not  go  back  to  their  early  Biblical 
history.  I  will  not  dwell  upon  the  question  of 
their  classification  as  a  Semitic  people,  though, 
as  Kanke  puts  it,  their  very  existence  and  es- 
sential nature  was  not  only  in  opposition  and 
contradiction  to  the  pagans  of  the  classical 
world,  but  to  the  other  Semitic  powers  then 
extant,  l^or  will  I  dwell  upon  the  different 
elements,  national  and  racial,  which  they  as- 
similated many  centuries  ago,  such  as  the 
kingdom  of  the  Chazari,  a  warlike  tribe  that 
became  converted  to  Judaism ;  nor  will  I 
dwell    npon    the    distinctions    drawn   among 


28  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

themselves  in  mediseval  and  modern  times, 
such  as  that  of  the  Sephardi  and  the  Ash- 
ken  azi.  I  will  not  even  dwell  upon  their  dif- 
ference among  themselves  in  the  present  day, 
from  the  rough-and-ready  aspects  of  manifest 
ethnology ;  as  when,  taking  the  Polish  Jews, 
who  present  the  greatest  internal  unity  of 
language  and  character,  we  are  struck  by  the 
large  proportion  of  fair-haired  and  blae-eyed 
men  and  women,  who  present  a  marked  con- 
trast to  the  black-haired  and  dark-eyed  indi- 
viduals, and  again  differ  from  some  with  high 
cheek-bones  and  blond  or  light- brown  hair 
and  beards,  very  much  the  Slav  type.  I  will 
not  dwell  upon  all  that  these  points  may  sug- 
gest ;  but,  to  bring  the  matter  to  a  practical 
head,  I  will  take  the  case  of  a  well-educated 
modern  Occidental  Jew,  one  who  is  himself 
born  in  Western  Europe  or  America,  of  an- 
cestors who,  on  the  face  of  it,  have  for  count- 
less generations  lived  in  the  West. 

Such  a  Jew,  educated  in  an  English,  Ger- 
man, French,  or  American  school  and  univer- 
sity, is  certainly  in  looks,  manners,  character, 
habits,  tastes,  and  ideas  as  different  from  a 
Jew  of  Turkey  or  Egypt  or  E-ussia  as  he  can 
well  be.    The  people  to  whom  he  corresponds 


THE   JEWISH    QUESTION  29 

in  all  essential  points  are  the  people  of  his 
own  country  in  whicli  he  was  born  and  bred 
and  has  lived.  In  this  country,  again,  he  will 
be  more  like  a  group  of  friends  with  whom 
he  associates  by  natural  social  selection  than 
like  those  with  whom  he  does  not  associate. 
The  difference  between  him  and  a  Jew  of  es- 
sentially different  occupations  and  social  tastes 
m^ay  be  as  great  as  between  an  English  uni- 
versity-man, of  Christian  persuasion,  and  a  fac- 
tory hand  or  farm  laborer  in  the  same  coun- 
try. He  will  certainly,  as  national  distinctions 
now  go,  be  more  like  the  men  following  the 
same  walk  of  life  in  his  own  country  than  he 
will  be  like  those  in  Germany  or  France ;  and 
he  certainly  will  be  essentially  different  from 
the  Jew  of  the  East. 

Now,  what  must  such  an  Occidental  Jew 
say  of  himself  if  he  is  true  to  himself,  and  if 
he  recognizes  truth  in  all  matters  as  the  su- 
preme duty  of  man  ?  He  will  have  to  say  that 
the  strict  racial  unity  of  the  Jews  is  doubtful, 
even  with  regard  to  the  past ;  and  as  regards 
the  present,  he  will  have  to  deny  it  absolute- 
ly. Confirming  his  actual  clear  observation 
by  the  results  of  natural  science — even  with 
all  regard   to  Weissman's  views  —  he  would 


30  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION- 

have  to  consider  it  nothing  short  of  a  miracle 
if,  in  his  whole  nature,  he  w^as  not  different 
from  the  dweller  in  the  East. 

He  will  have  to  retort  to  the  anti-Semitic 
agitator  that  his  ancestors  probably  lived  in 
Germany  and  France  before  those  of  the  per- 
sons who  wish  to  claim  supreme  national  rights 
on  the  ground  of  earliest  settlement.  Perhaps 
all  the  Jews  of  Germany  have,  in  this  respect, 
a  greater  claim  to  be  considered  Germans  than 
men  like  Treitschke,  whose  name  so  evidently 
points  to  a  Slav  origin. 

There  certainly  have  been  Jews  in  the 
l^orth  and  South  of  Europe,  and  perhaps  in 
England,  in  Koman  times.  There  was  an  or- 
ganized congregation  at  Cologne,  probably  in 
the  third  century  A.D.,  while,  not  to  mention 
the  South  of  France  and  Spain  prior  to  the 
Christian  persecutions,  the  Jews  were  free  oc- 
cupants of  the  land  all  through  the  succeeding 
centuries ;  and,  in  spite  of  temporary  expul- 
sions and  wholesale  butcheries  during  the 
w^hole  of  the  Middle  Ages  up  to  our  own 
time,  they  at  all  times  were  dwellers  in  the 
West  of  Europe.  Admitting  the  influence  of 
climate  and  soil  upon  even  the  physical  con- 
stitution of  living  beings,  whether  by  the  im- 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  31 

mediate  influence  of  the  environment  or  by 
natural  selection,  these  Jews  have  become 
thoroughly  occidentalized,  and,  as  far  as  phys- 
ical conditions  are  concerned,  they  are  under 
the  same  influence  and  are  fashioned  and  af- 
fected in  the  same  manner  as  all  the  other 
peoples  in  Western  Europe  from  whom  the 
citizens  of  the  modern  Western  nations  spring. 
Conscious  of  these  facts  witli  regard  to  his 
physical  history,  the  Occidental  Jew  of  whom 
I  am  speaking  must  furthermore  not  blind 
himself  to  the  elements  which  compose  and 
give  their  character  to  his  intellectual  and 
moral  nature.  He  must  remain  conscious,  and 
gratefully  conscious,  of  the  elements  which 
make  up  the  civilization  in  which  he  lives, 
and  which  constitute  the  very  core  of  his  in- 
ner existence  during  every  day  that  he  feels 
or  thinks  or  acts.  It  is  difficult  or  impossible 
to  enumerate  all  these  elements  of  modern 
Occidental  civilization,  but  among  them  we 
may  single  out  a  few.  There  is,  first,  the 
element  of  Hebraism  as  it  has  filtered  through 
Western  civilization  for  so  many  centuries, 
quite  apart  from  the  Hebraism  inherent  in 
modern  Judaism  as  it  is  handed  down  in  the 
worship  and  traditions  of  the  living  Jews  of 


32  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION" 

to-day.  Nor  do  I  only  mean  the  Hebraism  as 
it  has  passed  through  Christianity  or  Chris- 
tian dogma,  but  I  mean  those  fundamental 
moral  and  spiritual  ideas  impersonated  in  the 
historj^  and,  alas !  the  martyrdom  of  the  Jew- 
ish people.  This  civilization,  which  he  shares 
and  to  which  he  may  contribute  with  all  oth- 
er citizens  of  Western  states,  is  also  essentially 
composed  of  and  modified  by  the  results  of 
the  Eenaissance,  the  introduction  of  all  we 
mean  by  Hellenism,  with  regard  to  tlie  funda- 
mental fashioning  of  our  taste — taste  not  only 
for  beauty  in  nature,  in  art,  and  in  literature, 
but  taste  which  directs  the  current  of  our  be- 
ing and  acting,  and  our  delight  in  the  acquisi- 
tion of  truth  as  a  thing  to  be  admired,  and  of 
goodness  that  we  worship  as  a  thing  thorough- 
ly harmonious,  so  that  worship  and  admiration 
may  almost  replace  effort  and  stern  duty. 
Nor  must  he  ignore  the  effect  which  the  em- 
phatic teaching  of  Christian  charity  has  had 
upon  the  formation  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  ideals  of  man,  however  much  the  treat- 
ment his  ancestors  may  have  received  at  the 
hands  of  the  Church  and  of  mobs  of  knights 
and  serfs  that  advanced  under  its  banner  may 
have  belied  the  tenets  of  Christ  in  their  ac- 


THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 


tions.  He  must  be  aware  of  the  wide  scope 
of  vision  which  the  coincidence  of  the  Roman 
empire  and  the  organization  of  the  Catholic 
Churcli  had  upon  the  intellectual  development 
of  Europe.  Furthermore,  the  idea  of  chival- 
ry in  all  its  modified  forms,  which  at  least 
adds  its  influence  in  making  a  "  gentleman,'' 
and  teaches  him  to  do  honor  to  womanhood. 
He  has  also  to  share  in  the  stimulating  influ- 
ence of  the  Reformation,  in  the  levelling 
power  of  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  in  the 
untold  benefits  to  intellectual  progress  which 
the  printing-press  has  given ;  and  he,  too,  has 
a  share  in  the  good  results  which  came  from 
the  terrible  French  Revolution.  He  must 
finally,  above  all,  remember  his  indebtedness 
to  the  moral  standards  of  modern  times,  which 
no  one  of  these  currents  can  arrogate  to  itself, 
which  is  made  up  of  all  these  (sometimes  in 
opposition  to  each  one),  namely,  the  love  of 
man  to  man,  and  of  the  standards  of  truth  as 
intensified  by  modern  science. 

1^0 w,  realizing  all  this,  he  must  admit  that 
a  very  small  portion  of  his  moral  and  intel- 
lectual existence  is  Jewish  in  the  Orientalist 
sense  of  the  term,  and  he  cannot  thus  be 
cramped  back  into  the  laws  which  are  to  gov- 


34  THE   JEWISH    QUESTIOJ^ 

ern  the  thought  and  life  of  a  Jew  as  laid 
down  in  the  Talmud  and  embraced  by  the 
practices  of  the  devout  and  observant  Jew. 
He  is  speaking  and  living  a  lie  if  he  denies 
this  by  word  or  deed ;  and  those  who  by  word 
or  deed  deny  him  the  right  of  being  in  every 
sense  a  full  Occidental  citizen  speak  and  live 
a  lie.  Yet  this  lie  is  lived  by  many  Jews  of 
superior  moral  and  intellectual  quality,  gen- 
erally from  the  mistaken  sense  of  chivalry. 
Put  yourself  in  the  place  of  such  a  Jew.  He 
lives  among  traditions  that  have  a  deep  poetry 
from  their  age,  from  the  centuries  during 
which  they  have  retained  their  influence,  cor- 
responding to  the  poetry  which  presents  it- 
self to  one  who  looks  back  upon  a  long  line  of 
ancestors.  He  feels  strongly  what  the  Jews 
have  always  retained  (and  may  they  ever  do 
so  and  teach  it  to  others),  the  family  piety 
which  makes  each  successive  son  shrink  from 
denying  the  love  which  his  father  manifests 
to  him  in  life  or  in  memory.  The  desire  not 
to  grieve  by  any  act  of  dissent  those  who 
are  nearest  to  him  is  a  strong  one.  And, 
above  all,  he  feels  the  spirit  of  chivalry,  or 
call  it  pluck ;  for  he  sees  those  of  his  own  de- 
scent suffering,  if  not  the  rack  and  the  fagot. 


THE   JEWISH    QUESTION  35 

still  the  slings  and  arrows  which  a  cruel  society 
can  wield,  none  the  less  painful  because  they 
may  be  based  upon  ignorance.  He  realizes 
•witii  contempt  how  many  in  times  of  tribula- 
tion have  been  renegades,  and  what  harm  they 
have  done;  not  only  by  the  slur  they  thus  cast 
upon  their  people,  but  by  tlie  fact  that,  gen- 
erally being  possessed  of  wealth  or  of  superior 
intellectual  power,  their  success  in  the  world 
of  thought  or  action  has  been  lost  to  the  esti- 
mation which  could  be  formed  of  the  whole 
people.  He  must  feel  himself  a  coward  if  he 
denies  them  so  long  as  they  are  in  adversity. 
He  can  in  his  mind  live  through  the  struggles 
which  such  a  great  and  noble  soul  as  Spinoza 
must  have  gone  through  :  what  moral  courage 
it  required  for  him  to  follow^  the  stern  sum- 
mons of  truth,  and  to  leave  his  own  people  in 
misery.  And  he  cries  out,  as  the  Psalmist  of 
old  :  "If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,  let  my 
right  hand  forget  her  cunning.  If  I  do  not 
remember  thee,  let  my  tongue  cling  to  the 
roof  of  my  mouth ;  if  I  prefer  not  Jerusalem 
above  my  chief  joy." 

And  what  is  the  result?  That  an  untrue 
and  artificial  unity  remains,  not  raising  the 
members  of  such  a  community  among  them- 


36  THE   JEWISH    QUESTIOJS^ 

selves,  and  not  allowing  the  good  tliey  may 
have  to  teach  to  penetrate  readily  into  the 
other  circles  they  may  live  among.  And  as 
there  is  not  a  free  differentiation  in  which, 
without  violence  or  unfriendliness,  the  groups 
of  natural  affinity  find  themselves  and  become 
organized  in  free  social  intercourse,  and  dis- 
tinctions not  being  made  among  themselves,  it 
is  but  natural  that  others  should  not  distin- 
guish between  the  good  and  the  bad,  the  culti- 
vated and  the  uncultivated.  And  if  a  private 
insult  is  offered  to  one  member  of  such  a  va- 
ried body,  it  is  looked  npon  by  some  as  an 
insult  to  the  whole  race.  Besides  being  un- 
true it  leads  to  the  manifest  absurdity  that, 
while  they  still  profess,  and  in  part  act  up 
to,  such  an  untrue  unity,  they,  on  the  other 
hand,  consider  it  a  great  injustice  if  a  bad,  or 
even  a  good,  man  among  them  is  denoted  or 
characterized  and  distinguished  by  the  terms 
of  a  racial  difference,  which  on  every  side  they 
fictitiously  claim.  The  result  of  meeting  with 
prejudices,  and  even  persecution,  seems  to  me 
inevitable. 

It  appears  to  me  to  be  almost  an  historical 
law,  that  wherever  there  is  a  distinct  com- 
munity, or  body  within   the  community,  it 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  37 

sooner  or  later  becomes  the  object  of  hatred, 
contempt,  or  persecution.  Look  to  any  coun- 
try and  you  will  find  that  if  there  be  a  body 
of  settlers  or  emigrants  who,  from  the  fact  of 
living  together  or  by  pronounced  distinctive 
traits,  become  readily  noticeable  as  a  distinct 
body,  they  will  necessarily  take  a  secondary 
social  position  (unless  they  are  conquerors  in 
the  bloody  or  unbloody  warfare,  or  in  the  phys- 
ical majority),  and  this  secondary  position 
will  in  due  course  effect  contempt,  and  may 
further  lead  to  persecution.  The  human  feel- 
ings of  envy  and  jealousy  are  unfortunately 
so  thoroughly  engrained,  that  if  success  in  the 
acquisition  of  what  is  generally  admitted  to 
be  desirable  comes  to  such  distinctive  bodies, 
or  individual  members  among  them,  the  feel- 
ing of  the  masses,  and,  unfortunately,  even  of 
the  more  highly  educated,  rise  against  them. 
This  is  so  not  only  with  the  Germans  in  Eng- 
land and  France,  but  even  with  the  German 
settlements  in  the  provinces  of  Austria  and 
Hungary,  where  the  term  "  Schwab,"  standing 
for  all  Germans,  is  one  of  derogation.  This 
is  so  with  the  Italians  and  the  French,  and 
would  be  so  with  the  English  if  their  colonies 
did  not  form  such  a  natural  and  attractive  out- 


38  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION" 

let  for  their  surplus  emigration.  The  success 
of  foreign  bodies  in  commerce  and  finance 
evokes  envy,  not  only  against  the  Jews,  but 
against  any  other  body  that  may  thus  mani- 
fest itself  in  its  solidarity.  In  one  of  George 
Meredith's  latest  novels,  One  of  Our  Con- 
querors^  he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  a  London 
city  philosopher  who  fears  for  the  repression 
of  the  Saxon  race :  "  Hengist  and  Horsa,  our 
fishy  Saxon  originals,  in  modern  garb,  the 
liverymen  and  gaitered  squire,  flat -headed, 
paunchy,  assiduously  servile,  are  shown  black- 
ing Ben  Israel's  boots  and  grooming  the 
princely  stud  of  the  Jew.  .  .  .  Including 
the  dreaded  Scotchman  as  well,  and  Ameri- 
cans and  Armenians  and  Greeks:  latterly 
Germans  hardly  less."  If  this  social  law  be, 
as  I  hold  it  to  be,  true,  then,  especially  con- 
sidering the  crass  ignorance  concerning  the 
history  of  the  modern  Jew,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  if  wholesale  charges  are  brought 
against  him,  such  as  his  well  known  money 
greed  (which,  as  I  shall  show,  is  absolutely  un- 
founded as  regards  this  people),  or  as  parasitic, 
or  any  other  term  that  may  express  the  envy 
which  the  less  successful  of  whatever  class  feel 
against  their  happier  fellow-citizens. 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  39 

Kecognizing  the  evils  of  racial  exclusive- 
ness,  what  is  such  a  modern  Occidental  Jew  to 
do  ?  He  has  siinply  to  live  up  to  his  convic- 
tions in  every  detail  of  his  life.  He  has  not 
only,  as  he  has  ever  done,  to  perform  the  du- 
ties of  a  citizen  of  the  country  in  which  he 
lives  fully  and  conscientiously,  but  he  has  not, 
as  far  as  the  race  question  goes,  in  any  way  to 
recognize  the  separate  claims  of  the  Jews 
within  his  country.  As  a  matter  which  con- 
cerns his  own  inner  consciousness,  and,  if  pro- 
voked by  assertion  in  others,  he  may  feel 
justly  proud  of  being  a  descendant  of  the  old- 
est and  purest  race  which  has  been  swayed 
and  guided  by  a  great  spiritual  idea  through 
many  centuries  of  misfortune  and  martyrdom, 
steadfastly  and  to  the  blessing  of  mankind  in 
general ;  just  as  a  Norman  or  a  Saxon  or  a 
Celt  in  Great  Britain  may,  when  called  upon 
to  do  so,  consider,  and  be  gratified  by,  the 
memory  of  his  own  racial  origin,  but  no  more. 
He  must  spurn  and  avoid  all  those  symbols 
and  rites  which  have  been  established  to  sig- 
nify a  separate,  even  though  a  chosen  people. 
His  marriage  and  his  choice  of  friends  must 
be  exclusively  guided  by  the  pure  considera- 
tions of  the  inner  affinity  which  are  likely 


40  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

to  make  siicli  unions  perfect  as  far  as  things 
human  can  be  perfect.  His  business  and  so- 
cial relations  must  be  entirely  free  from,  and 
unbiassed  by,  any  considerations  of  the  rela- 
tionship of  race,  and  he  must  not  admit  into 
his  circle  of  intimate  friends  a  person  of  Jew- 
ish origin,  because  of  his  origin,  as  little  as  he 
must  shut  him  out  on  that  account.  He  must 
in  one  word,  as  I  have  said  before,  keep  his 
life  from  being  a  lie,  and  live  up  to,  in  every 
respect,  what  he  considers  truth. 

There  may  be  some  complicated  cases,  such, 
for  instance,  as  is  presented  by  the  question, 
What  must  the  attitude  of  a  Jew  be  towards 
the  Russian  Jews  who  are  undergoing  such 
hard  fate  ?  Well,  then,  so  long  as  he  does  not 
look  upon  them  as  religious  fellow-worshippers 
(which  may  certainly  be  a  tie,  such  as  a  church- 
man or  a  Wesley  an  would  feel  towards  his 
foreign  coreligionists),  he  must  be  actuated  by 
simple  motives  of  humanitarianism.  He  must 
feel  for  the  oppressed,  as  we  should  all  feel  for 
an  Indian  or  an  Armenian  or  a  Bulgarian  or  a 
negro  slave,  with  the  only  difference  in  this 
case  that  there  are  greater  ties  of  piety  bind- 
ing the  Russian  Jews  to  us  all;  as  regards 
the  Western  Jew,  that  there  is  a  certain  rela- 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION"  41 

tionship  of  race  to  be  traced  many  centuries 
back;  and,  as  regards  the  Christian,  that  the 
human  sojourn  and  nationality  of  his  Lord  was 
among  the  ancestors  of  these  people,  out  of 
which  the  Christian  religion  has  arisen,  and 
the  chief  documents  of  which  it  has  embodied 
in  its  own  sacred  writings. 

But  if  this  Occidental  Jew  should  feel  tl;e 
element  of  race  and  its  claims  more  strongly 
tlian  I  have  put  tliem,  then  there  is  but  the 
other  alternative,  that  he  and  they  must  strive 
to  form  a  Jewish  state.  No  race  has  a  right  of 
separate  existence  without  a  state ;  though  we 
must  carefully  guard  against  assuming  the  con- 
verse to  be  true,  namely,  that  no  state  can  ex- 
ist without  a  unity  of  race.  This  was  felt  even 
by  one  of  their  greatest  men,  during  the  flower 
of  culture  of  their  life  in  Spain  in  the  tenth 
century,  Chasdai  Ben-Isaac  Ibn  Shaprut,  who 
was  overjoyed  to  hear  of  the  Jewish  kingdom 
of  the  Chasari.  It  was  one  of  the  glories  of  the 
Jews  on  the  religious  and  moral  side,  and  has, 
I  strongly  believe,  accrued  to  the  benefit  of  the 
world  at  large,  that  they  should  have  survived 
through  all  the  adversities  and  persecutions, 
keeping  their  faith  and  their  God  undefiled. 
For  this  they  have  suffered  the  great  martyr- 


42  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION" 

dom  of  centuries,  and  the  world  ought  to  be 
grateful  to  them  for  it.  But  at  the  same  time 
it  was  the  cause  of  their  own  misfortune ;  it 
was,  if  I  am  not  misunderstood  in  saying  so,  an 
historical  crime  that  they  should  have  main- 
tained the  mock  unity  of  race  after  the  people 
as  a  people  and  as  a  nation  had  gone.  If  it 
is  strongly  felt  that  this  unity  of  race  ought 
to  be  preserved,  then  we  must  do  all  in  our 
power  to  make  the  Jews  a  nation  or  state. 
In  pondering  much  upon  this  subject  I  at  one 
time  thought  it  not  only  desirable,  but  even 
thoroughly  practicable.  By  this  I  did  not 
mean  that  all  the  Jews  scattered  throughout 
the  world  were  to  leave  their  actual  homes 
and  to  settle  in  this  newly  founded  state,  as 
little  as  all  EnMishmen  need  crowd  too:ether  in 
the  British  Isles.  But  I  hold,  as  I  shall  show, 
that  the  Jew's  ideal  mission  to  the  world  has 
been  and  is  being  fulfilled  in  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  now  dispersed  over  the  earth ; 
and  I  do  not  feel  convinced  that  the  foundation 
of  such  a  state  is  necessary  or  most  desirable. 

The  attitude  and  action  of  such  a  modern  Oc- 
cidental Jew  with  regard  to  the  question  of 
race  and  nationality  seems  to  be  clearly  defined. 
But  if  such  a  Jew  believe  in  the  Jewish  Church, 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  43 

what,  then,  is  to  be  his  attitude  and  his  life  ? 
Yet  here  again  we  are  met  with  countless  dif- 
ficulties, which  stand  in  the  way  of  a  clear 
conception  of  the  case ;  difficulties  which  I  feel 
convinced  neither  the  Jews  themselves  nor 
those  who  have  thought  or  spoken  about  them 
have  dared  to  face  and  to  dissolve  into  their 
constituent  factors.  For  the  first  question  we 
are  met  with  is  one  concerning  the  unity  of  the 
Jewish  faith,  or  tlie  Jewish  Church.  And  it 
appears  to  me  that  the  liistory  of  Judaism  in 
the  past  centuries,  as  well  as  the  state  of  their 
religion  in  the  present,  does  not  warrant  us  in 
calling  it  a  unity.  I  venture  to  affirm  that  in 
the  past  and  in  the  present  among  the  Jewish 
sects  there  are  differences  of  doctrine  and  of 
ritual  which  are  as  great,  if  not  greater,  than 
those  which  separate  the  Church  of  Rome  from 
the  numerous  Protestant  sects.  But  when 
making  this  remark,  1  have  been  told  that  the 
unity  of  the  Cliurch  and  the  essential  features 
of  the  Jewish  religion  were  to  be  found  in  pure 
monotheism.  If  this  be  so,  I  must  still  urge 
the  central  question,  which  the  thoughtful  Jew 
must  ask  himself  and  answer  clearly  and  une- 
quivocally :  Do  you  believe  in  Jewish  theism 
as  restrictedly  national,  or  as  simply  a  spiritual 


44  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

belief  in  one  God  first  recognized  by  the 
Jews?  The  unenlightened  Jew  may  at  once 
answer:  "My  faith  is  distinctly  national;  I 
cannot  conceive  a  God  or  pray  to  Him  without 
the  admixture  of  a  Hebrew  prerogative." 
Well,  then,  the  religion  of  such  a  one  is  essen- 
tially, not  accidentally,  different  from  the  faith 
of  him  who  may  be  called  an  Occidental  mon- 
otheist.  But  the  Jew  who  knows  of  no  such 
national  restriction  to  his  theism  will  further- 
more have  to  face  the  proposition  that  no 
man  can  consider  himself  as  being  of  the  Jew- 
ish faith  who  does  not  believe  in  the  direct 
inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament  by  God  as 
a  book  intrinsically  holj^,  not  by  its  tradition 
only ;  who  does  not  believe  in  the  exception- 
ally holy  character  of  the  Talmud,  perhaps 
even  of  the  Cabala,  of  either  of  the  three,  or 
of  all  three  together.  The  Occidental  Jew 
who  does  not  believe  in  this,  and  whose  theism 
is  not  restrictedly  national,  may  refer  in  piety 
to  the  past  of  the  Jewish  people,  but  he  must 
consider  himself  an  Occidental  theist  or  deist, 
such  as  Locke  and  many  others  have  been. 
This  Occidental  monotheist  is  truer  to  his  own 
intellectual  development,  inasmuch  as  pure 
Judaism  has  to  a  greater  extent  kept  out  of 


THE   JEWISH    QUESTION  45 

it  those  Occidental  elements  which  I  have  enu- 
merated above  as  forming  part  of  the  moral 
and  intellectual  consciousness  of  the  Western 
Jew.  He  must  choose  whatever  contemporary 
form  of  thought  corresponds  most  fully  to  his 
own  belief. 

Yet  I  can  well  understand  how  difficult  it 
will  be  for  one  brought  up  in  the  Jewish  faith 
and  imbued  with  the  heroic  grandeur  of  Jew- 
ish history  to  accept  this  readily.  The  influ- 
ence of  piety  to  which  I  have  alluded  with 
regard  to  race  may  even  here  urge  its  claims 
more  strongly.  He  will  be  justified  in  saying, 
'*  Why  should  not  the  religious  theist,  the 
Unitarian,  and  all  members  of  similar  sects, 
come  over  to  us  and  become  reformed  Jews  ? 
In  the  past  centuries,  when  our  faith  in  its 
outer  form  differed  more  essentially  from  the 
current  beliefs,  and  admission  into  our  national 
body  constituted  a  much  greater  change  than 
it  now  would,  there  have  been  priests  and  lay- 
men who  faced  the  danger  and  underwent  the 
fate  of  martyrdom  at  the  stake,  and  became 
converted  to  Judaism.  If  our  faith  is  essen- 
tially the  same,  then  we  have  in  addition  the 
poetry  and  inspiring  grandeur  of  a  beautiful 
and  continuous  historical   ground  for  which 


46  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION" 

the  blood  of  martyrs  was  shed,  mellowed  by 
centuries  of  endurance  with  unparalleled  stead- 
fastness under  tribulation.  We  have  the  hoari- 
ness  and  venerableness  of  age,  so  important  in 
the  poetry  and  sentiment  of  faith ;  we  have 
nurtured  in  us  the  first  flame  kept  alive  by  the 
first  breath  of  countless  new-born  babes  and 
by  the  last  gasp  of  millions  of  dying  men  and 
women.  We  are  the  parent  of  Christianity  in 
which  the  Christian  Lord  was  reared  as  a  man. 
Is  all  this  to  be  swept  away  ?  Why  not  come 
to  us,  and  why  should,  since  the  period  of 
physical  martyrdom  has  gone  by  and  the  sun 
smiles,  the  night  of  extinction  be  spread  over 
all?  Who  could  be  deaf  to  the  poetry  and 
justice  of  such  a  plea  ? 

There  is  a  way  of  responding  to  these  just 
demands  and  at  the  same  time  corresponding 
to  truth  and  fact.  This  lies  in  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Neo-Mosaic  Church.  I  say  Mosaic 
and  not  Judaic  or  Hebraic.  The  racial  ele- 
ment is  thus  to  be  excluded;  while  it  is  to 
comprise  all  those  who  believe  in  pure  mono- 
theism, which,  as  such,  was  first  given  to  the 
world  by  Moses,  together  with  those  laws  of 
morality  out  of  which  our  highest  conceptions 
of  right  and  wrong  have  been  evolved.     Ac- 


THB    JEWISH    QUESTION  47 

count  will  thus  be  taken  of  the  actual  history 
of  monotheistic  belief;  while  the  poetic  in- 
spiration, the  vivid  and  vital  life  of  ages  hand- 
ed on  continuously  to  the  future,  the  piety  for 
the  past  and  for  all  that  has  withstood  the  test 
of  stormy  times — elements  so  important  in 
any  living  religion— will  increase  the  vitality 
and  reality  of  such  a  Church  without  impair- 
ing and  hampering  the  clearest  expression  of 
its  articles  of  faith.  The  ritual  of  such  a 
Church  may  be  based  upon  the  ritual  of  the 
Jewish  Church  to  any  degree  compatible  with 
the  unequivocal  expression  of  its  faith  and 
exclusive  of  narrow  racial  limits.  The  lan- 
guage is  to  be  only  that  of  the  country  in 
which  the  Church  finds  itself ;  for,  as  a  medi- 
aeval Jewish  rabbi  said,  one  cannot  pray  with- 
out understanding  the  language  in  which  the 
prayer  is  couched.  The  elements  of  ethical 
and  religious  teaching  which  have  become  the 
property  of  civilized  nations  through  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  and  modern  times,  including  those 
in  the  New  Testament — for  instance,  the  say- 
ings of  Christ,  in  so  far  as  they  do  not  clash 
with  pure  monotheism — will  have  to  be  assimi- 
lated. It  wiirthus  be  the  nearest  to  the  creed 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  Unitarian  Church 


48  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

and  of  advanced  shadings  of  other  churches. 
But  it  will  add  to  these  the  historical  back- 
ground of  a  continuous  development  of  mono- 
theistic beliefs  for  several  thousand  years.  It 
is,  in  fact,  the  only  Church  to  which  most  Uni- 
tarians can  consistently  belong. 

I  have  hitherto  spoken  chiefly  of  one  type 
of  Jew,  namely,  the  purely  Occidental  Jew,  in 
whom  Occidental  culture  has  been  an  essential 
element.  But  there  are  numerous  gradations 
of  Jews; — as  for  that,  there  are  numerous  gra- 
dations among  all  bodies  of  men.  One  of  the 
many  errors  we  wish  to  combat  is  the  slip- 
shod and  untrue  classification  of  all  these  peo- 
ple, so  diversified  among  themselves,  as  a  defi- 
nite unit. 

There  is,  therefore,  an  imperious  necessity 
presenting  itself  to  the  Jews  themselves  and 
to  those  who  deal  with  them  or  the  Jewish 
question,  namely,  the  necessity  of  differentia- 
tion, if  not  of  disintegration. 

For  the  class  we  have  been  dealing  with, 
namely,  those  of  European  antecedents  and 
habits,  the  separate  existence  of  a  Jewish  race 
is  untrue,  and  is  an  evil.  It  only  exists  histori- 
cally as  an  element  of  poetic  pride  and  inspira- 
tion.    With  regard  to  religion,  they  will  nat- 


THE   JEWISH    QUESTION  49 

urally  turn  towards  theism,  especially  that 
form  which  I  have  just  suggested  in  the  Neo- 
Mosaic  Church.  But  they  will  always  have  to 
be  tolerant  of,  and  even  sympathetic  towards, 
their  brethren,  to  whom  this  form  is  too  nar- 
row or  too  wide,  and  who  truthfully  live  up  to 
their  inner  convictions. 

We  next  have  those  who,  while  also  Occi- 
dental and  European,  still  cannot,  or  will  not, 
dissociate  their  monotheism  from  the  actual 
Jewish  people  and  their  past  history.  These 
will  be  (as  their  religion  in  its  essential  teach- 
ing enjoins,  as  they  have  always  been)  good 
citizens  in  the*  countries  in  which  they  live. 
They  will  thus  have  every  claim  to  political 
freedom  and  equality,  all  privileges  of  citizen- 
ship ;  they  will  have  the  tolerance  and  sympa- 
thy with  regard  to  their  religious  views  which 
all  enlightened  people  grant  every  faith  truly 
held.  But,  being  thus  manifestly  recognizable 
as  a  distinct  body  within  the  general  commu- 
nity, they  must  not  be  astonished  or  aggrieved 
if  they  are  spoken  of  as  a  body  or  class,  and 
meet  with  expressions  of  approval  or  disap- 
proval as  a  body.  Bat  they  will  be  justified 
in  claiming  that  such  generalizations  be  based 
upon  knowledge  of  facts,  and  correspond  to 

4 


50  THE    JEWISH    QUESTIOJS" 

truth,  and  not,  as  is  generally  the  case,  the 
result  of  ignorance  and  jealousy.  Just  as  any 
Scotch  or  German  community  within  an  Eng- 
lish district,  manifesting  itself  in  any  way  as  a 
body,  might  be  considered  as  a  body,  though 
the}^,  too,  can  claim  truth  and  justice. 

Finally,  should  there  be  among  us  those  who 
are  not  essentially  European,  more  Jewish 
than  Occidental,  with  no  tendency  towards 
assimilation  into  the  main  body  of  the  people 
among  whom  they  live  (if  such  there  be),  these 
must  submit  to  be  treated  as  aliens,  as  aliens 
are  treated  in  civilized  states.  The  ideal  for 
these,  as  for  all  who  cling  to  racial  distinction, 
is  the  formation  of  a  Jewish  state.  The  ideal 
for  such  a  Jewish  state  might  be  the  task  of 
carrying  into  the  East  the  civilization  of  the 
West ;  as  in  the  Middle  Ages  their  forefathers 
brought  among  the  barbarians  of  the  West 
the  torch  of  culture,  which  had  been  kept 
alight  by  them  in  their  journey  from  the 
East. 

But  to  all  Jews  we  owe  a  kindly  reverence 
and  sympathy  for  the  maintenance  of  a  faith 
of  such  age  which  has  been  tested  by  such 
trials.  For  what  is  the  martyrdom  of  Chris- 
tianity in  its  early  days,  or  of  one  or  other  of 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION  51 

its  forms  during  a  definite  historical  period, 
compared  to  the  continuous  martyrdom  of  the 
Jews  during  so  many  centuries?  The  day 
will  have  to  come,  and  will  come,  when  all 
people  will  join  in  erecting  a  monument  to 
the  Jewish  martyrs. 


II 


THE   MISSION   OF   THE   JEWS 

In  the  first  half  of  the  first  century  a.d. 
there  lived  in  Alexandria  the  philosopher 
Philo.  He  was  born  about  the  year  20  e.g., 
and  died  about  the  year  55  a.d.  He  belonged 
to  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  distin- 
guished families  in  the  East,  being  brother  to 
Arabarch  Alexander,  of  Alexandria — that  is, 
the  ruler  over  the  Arabic  and  Jewish  portion  of 
the  inhabitants  of  that  district.  He  was  also 
connected  with  influential  people  in  the  Ro- 
man empire,  and  with  the  family  of  the  King 
of  Judah,  whose  beautiful  daughter  Berenice 
was  at  first  betrothed  to  his  brother's  son 
Marcus.  But  his  distinction  did  not  rest 
upon  the  brilliant  social  conditions  into  which 
he  was  born,  nor  even  upon  the  prominent 
political  position  he  held ;  though  he  was  se- 
lected as  one  of  the  ambassadors  who  was  sent 
to  Eome  to  shake  the  resolution  of  the  Em- 


f -y^     OF  t:i 


THE    MISSION    OF    THE    JEW 


■*4  J     f  "^^  - 


peror  Caligula  in  his  desecration  of  the  Tem- 
ple of  Jerusalem  by  the  erection  of  his  own 
statue  within  the  holy  precincts.  The  respect 
in  which  Philo  w^as  held  in  his  own  time,  and 
the  admiration  which  the  whole  of  posterity 
has  for  him,  is  based  upon  the  lofty  purity  of 
his  character  and  upon  the  depth  and  beauty 
of  his  numerous  writings.  He  had,  as  had 
many  of  the  Hellenic  Jews  of  that  period, 
been  thoroughly  trained  in  all  the  arts  and 
sciences  which  then  found  their  home  in 
Alexandria.  He  was  well  versed  in  grammar, 
rhetoric,  music;  he  had  not  only  entered 
deeply  into  all  the  treasures  of  Greek  litera- 
ture, into  the  physical  and  mathematical 
sciences,  but  he  had  mastered  the  works  of 
all  the  great  philosophers  and  their  schools, 
among  whom  Plato  became  so  thoroughly  his 
favorite  that  a  later  authority,  Suidas,  in  an 
exaggerated  epigram  speaks  of  Philo  as  pla- 
tonizing  or  Plato  as  philonizing.  He  also  felt 
himself  closely  related  to  the  Stoic  school  of 
philosophy  because  of  the  lofty  moral  tone 
which  pervaded  its  ethical  system ;  as,  for 
the  same  reason,  he  felt  himself  strongly  op- 
posed to  the  Epicurean  philosophy,  which 
seemed  to  him  to  favor  more  the  sensual  life 


54  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

of  the  Greeks  he  saw  about  him.  He  thns 
was  one  of  the  most  prominent  representatives 
of  the  l^eo-Platonic  school  of  Greek  philos- 
ophy, and  one  of  the  ornaments  of  the  Greek 
Hellenic  literature  of  that  period. 

But  besides  these  elements  in  this  rich  nat- 
ure there  was  another  side  to  the  great  man, 
the  most  prominent  one,  namely,  the  Hebrew 
side.  He  was  in  his  heart  and  in  his  life  a 
true  Jew,  ever  loyal  to  his  people,  ready  to 
sacrifice  his  blood  for  them ;  while  the  chief 
inspiration  of  his  intellectual  and  moral  exist- 
ence he  derived  from  the  Mosaic  laws  and 
the  writings  of  the  Prophets.  In  all  his 
philosophical  and  metaphysical  disquisitions 
the  pure  monotheism  revealed  to  the  world 
by  his  people  struck  the  predominant  chord, 
and  underlay  the  mystery  of  the  world's  crea- 
tion and  preservation.  And  in  all  his  lofty 
speculations  upon  the  ideals  of  a  pure  and 
noble  life,  he  found  the  moral  laws  governing 
the  Jewish  people  to  be  the  ultimate  and 
safest  guides. 

These  two  elements  in  the  man,  who  was  at 
once  Greek  and  Jew,  are  also  the  two  marked 
features  in  all  his  writings — Hellenism  and 
Hebraism.     And,  as   in   his  life   and   in  his 


THE    MISSION    OF    THE    JEWS  55 

character,  he  endeavored  to  reconcile  and  to 
fuse  into  one  these  two  contending  forces, 
which,  like  the  parties  in  his  own  city  of 
Alexandria,  were  at  enmity  with  one  another, 
so  in  his  writings  we  see  a  perhaps  futile  at- 
tempt at  reconciling  these  two  leading  cur- 
rents of  life.  Towards  the  harmonizing  of  Hel- 
lenism and  Hebraism  the  greatest  men  of  these 
many  succeeding  centuries  have  been  working, 
until  perhaps  only  in  our  time  a  final  fusion 
may  be  hoped  for.     For,  as  Heine  has  said  : 

^*  The  contrasts  here  discordantly  are  paired, 
The  Greeks  deliofht,  Judaea's  thouHit  of  God. 

Oh,  never  more  will  ended  be  this  strife, 
And  truth  will  war  with  beauty  evermore." 

Nor  need  we  be  astonished  to  find  that  Philo 
failed  to  reconcile  the  two  in  his  philosophical 
system ;  and,  considering  the  wave  of  mysti- 
cism which  spread  over  the  whole  intellectual 
life  of  that  period,  need  we  be  repelled  by 
the  frequent  license  in  the  application  of  alle- 
gory, which  led  him  often  to  distort  the  plain 
meaning  of  Scripture  in  order  to  see  embodied 
in  it,  and  anticipated  by  it,  all  the  results  of 


56  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Greek  thought  and  metaphysics.  With  all 
the  Hellenic  beauty  and  depth  of  thought 
which  are  to  be  found  in  his  numerous  writ- 
ings, we  constantly  feel  that  the  Mosaic  teach- 
ings gave  the  first  impulse,  as  their  confirma- 
tion seems  to  be  the  ultimate  result.  He  is 
chiefly  moved  by  the  practical  effects  of  this 
teaching  upon  the  formation  of  his  own  soul 
in  its  appreciation  of  right  and  wrong,  and 
upon  the  manifest  effect  they  appear  to  have 
had  upon  the  Jewish  people  when  contrasted 
with  the  moral  dissoluteness  of  the  Greeks  lie 
saw  about  him. 

The  documents  of  Judaism,  according  to 
him,  contain  the  deepest  wisdom ;  what  the 
greatest  philosophers  among  the  Greeks  only 
taught  to  their  select  disciples,  the  whole  of 
the  Judaic  people  draw  out  of  the  laws  and 
customs  known  to  them  all,  especially  the 
knowledge  of  the  one  Eternal  God  (casting 
aside  all  the  vain  and  deceptive  gods)  and 
kindness  and  humanity  towards  all  creatures. 
"Are  not  these  laws,"  he  says,  in  one  of  his 
books  {De  Sejotenario  XII.)^  "  worthy  of  being 
revered  by  all  ?  They  teach  the  rich  to  give 
part  of  their  riches  to  the  poor,  to  console  the 
unfortunate ;  they  ordain  that  a  time  should 


THE    MISSION    OF   THE   JEWS  57 

come  in  wliicli  the  poor  need  not  knock  at  the 
doors  of  the  rich,  but  will  receive  their  pos- 
session again ;  for  in  every  seventh  year  the 
widows  and  orphans,  and  all  who  are  disowned, 
shall  once  again  come  into  wealth." 

The  highest  virtue,  according  to  him,  con- 
tains two  main  duties :  the  worship  of  God, 
and  love  and  justice  to  all  men.  In  the 
Mosaic  laws  he  sees  five  chief  points:  first, 
that  there  is  but  one  God ;  then,  the  unity  of 
that  Godhead  (as  opposed  to  those  philoso- 
phers who  assumed  a  dualism  in  the  contend- 
ing forces) ;  then,  that  the  world  was  created  by 
God  ;  further,  that  there  is  but  one  world ;  and, 
finally,  that  this  world  is  directed  in  its  course 
by  the  providence  of  God.  In  answer  to  the 
attacks  of  the  Pagans,  he  compares  the  written 
and  unwritten  laws  of  Judaism  with  the  moral 
standards  that  govern  the  heathens.  At  the 
head  of  all  these  unwritten  laws  he  places 
Eabbi  Hillel's  golden  words :  "  What  thou  dis- 
likest  that  do  not  unto  others."  Judaism,  he 
says,  does  not  only  condemn  the  refusal  of  fire 
and  water  to  those  who  want  it,  but  it  lays 
positive  injunctions  upon  all  to  give  to  the 
poor  and  the  weak  what  they  require  for  life ; 
it  distinctly  forbids  the  use  of  false  measures 


58  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION" 

and  false  money ;  it  forbids  the  separation  of 
children  from  their  parents,  of  the  wife  from 
her  husband,  even  if  they  are  rightfully  bought 
as  slaves ;  it  also  enjoins  the  law  of  compas- 
sion towards  animals.  He  then  defends  the 
Sabbatli  against  the  attacks  of  such  writers  as 
Lysimachus  and  Apion.  The  Jews,  he  says, 
are  able  during  one  day  in  seven  to  become 
acquainted  with  their  laws  through  reading 
and  interpretation,  and  they  are  all  saved  from 
ignorance.  The  husband  can  teach  the  wife, 
the  father  the  child,  and  the  master  the  slave, 
so  that  all  are  capable  of  giving  an  account  of 
the  laws.  The  Sabbatical  year  has  not  only 
the  aim,  he  says,  to  give  a  periodical  rest  to 
the  land  which  requires  it,  but  also  to  give  an 
opportunity  to  those  who  have  no  such  pos- 
sessions to  gather  the  fruits,  for  the  law  of 
property  is  suspended  in  that  year. 

But  of  the  mission  of  the  Jews  themselves, 
and  of  their  position  in  the  world,  Philo  has 
the  loftiest  and  most  ideal  conception.  Al- 
though heaven  and  earth  belong  to  God,  lie 
has  elected  the  Jewish  people  as  His  chosen 
people,  and  destined  it  to  His  service  as  the 
eternal  source  of  all  virtues.  The  Israelites 
have,  in  his  opinion,  laid  upon  them  the  great 


THE    MISSION    OF    THE   JEWS  59 

task  to  serve  for  the  whole  race  of  men  as 
priests  and  prophets;  to  open  out  to  them  the 
truth,  and,  mo¥e  especially,  the  pure  knowl- 
edge of  God.  And  therefore  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple would  enjoy  the  special  grace  of  God,  who 
will  never  withdraw  His  hand  from  them. 
Compared  to  other  nations,  he  continues,  the 
Jewish  nation  appears  like  an  orphan.  Other 
nations  assist  one  another;  while  they,  isolat- 
ed by  their  own  laws,  can  never  count  upon 
such  assistance.  For  this  very  severity  of 
the  Judaic  laws,  which  are  necessary  to  attain 
the  highest  degree  of  virtue,  repels  the  other 
nations  chiefly  addicted  to  a  life  of  pleasure- 
seeking.  But  just  because  of  the  orphanage 
of  these  people  can  they  hope  for  the  mercy 
of  God.  Philo  was  thoroughly  imbued  with 
the  belief  that  the  dispersed  and  suffering 
Israelites  would  once,  through  the  interven- 
tion of  the  Messiah,  be  collected  together  and 
led  home,  where  the  grace  of  God  would  again 
turn  upon  them  and  shine  upon  them,  and 
they  would  be  rewarded  for  their  endless  suf- 
fering and  their  long  steadfastness..  The  sym- 
bol of  this  nation  of  priests  he  held  to  be 
the  flowering  almond  staff  of  Aaron,  which 
indicates  that   they  will   always  retain  bud- 


60  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

ding  vitality  and  will  enjoy  eternal  spring- 
tide. 

♦ 
Just  about  a  thousand  years  after  Pliilo  was 
born  in  Alexandria — that  is,  about  the  year 
1086 — there  was  born  in  Castile  in  Spain, 
where  the  Jews  formed  a  great  centre  of  a 
prosperous  and  highly-cultivated  life,  a  youth 
whose  name  was  Abulhassan- Yehuda -Ben- 
Samuel -Ilalevi,  commonly  known  to  poster- 
ity under  the  name  of  Yehuda- Ben -Halevi. 
He  became  one  of  a  succession  of  great  poets, 
two  of  the  chief  names  among  which  were 
his  predecessors,  Ibn  Esra  (Abu  Harun  Mose, 
born  about  1070,  and  died  about  1139)  and,  of 
a  still  earlier  date,  Ibn  Gebirol,  of  Malaga 
(born  about  1021,  died  1050).  He  attended 
the  School  of  Alfassi,  at  Lucena,  because  in 
Castile  and  the  north  of  Spain  there  were  not 
celebrated  authorities  in  Talmudic  teaching. 
While  still  a  boy  the  poetic  muse  seems  to 
have  visited  him,  and  though  he  devoted  much 
time  to  his  Hebrew,  rabbinic  studies,  and  to 
the  science  which  subsequently  made  him  a 
skilled  physician,  he  widened  the  sphere  of  his 
learning  in  becoming  a  thorough  master  also  of 
the  Arabic  and  Castilian  tongues,  and  entered 


THE    MISSION^   OF   THE   JEWS  61 

deeply  into  the  study  of  ancient  philosophy. 
But  it  was  the  lyric  muse  which  chiefly  held 
his  heart  and  mind  ;  and  from  his  earliest  years 
he  began  to  write  verses  in  Hebrew,  Arabic, 
and  Spanish.  His  earliest  poems,  those  of 
youth,  strike  a  lighter  strain.  In  the  most 
beautiful  form  they  deal  with  the  joys  of  life 
and  love  and  wine.  Above  all,  it  was  the 
beauty  of  nature  which  inspired  him  to  burst 
forth  in  melodious  verse. 

But  in  his  full  development  he  betook  unto 
himself  one  bride,  and  remained  true  to  her 
through  all  hardships  and  sufferings  to  the 
end  of  his  days.  This  bride  was  Jerusalem. 
So  strongly  did  he  feel  the  attraction  which 
this  local  embodiment  of  his  own  people  ex- 
erted upon  him,  that  in  misfortune  and  weak 
in  health  he  undertook  the  pilgrimage  to  Jeru- 
salem, and  ended  his  eventful  life  in  the  East, 
never  returning  to  his  own  native  home. 

Heine,  who  has  devoted  to  him  a  long 
poem,  and  was  capable  of  appreciating  the 
beauty  of  these  Hebrew  verses,  gives  a  most 
adequate  account  of  this  noble  singer : 

"  Ah !  he  was  the  greatest  poet, 
Torch  and  starhght  to  his  age, 


or  T_: 


62  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

Beacon-light  unto  his  people ; — 
Such  a  mighty  and  a  wondrous 

Pillar  of  poetic  fire, 

Led  the  caravan  of  sorrow 

Of  his  people  Israel 

Through  the  desert  of  their  exile. 

Pure  and  truthful,  fair  and  blameless, 
Was  his  song,  and  thus  his  soul  was. 
When  the  Lord  that  soul  created. 
With  great  joy  His  work  beheld  He, 

And  He  kissed  that  soul  of  beauty. 
Of  His  kiss  the  fair  faint  echo 
Thrills  through  each  song  of  Halevi, 
By  the  Lord's  grace  sanctified. 

As  in  life,  so  in  our  singing, 
Highest  gift  of  all  is  grace — 
Holding  this,  he  never  falters, 
Not  in  prose  nor  yet  in  verses. 

Such  we  call  a  genius, 

By  the  grace  of  God  a  poet : 

LTesponsible  his  kingdom. 

O'er  the  thought  -  world  ruling,  reigning, 

Gives  account  but  to  the  Godhead, 
Not  the  people ;  for  in  art 


THE    MISSION    OF    THE    JEWS  C3 

As  in  life  the  people  can  but 
Slay,  yet  never  can  they  judge  us. 

And  the  hero  whom  we  sing  of, 
He  Yehuda  Ben  Halevi, 
Had  of  all  one  lady  chosen — 
Yet  she  was  of  different  moulding. 

She  was  not  a  favored  Laura, 
Whose  fair  eyes,  mere  mortal  starlight, 
In  the  duomo  on  Good  Friday 
Spread  the  famous  conflagration. 

Nor  was  she  a  chatelaine 
Who  presided  at  the  tourneys 
In  her  flower  of  youth  and  beauty, 
And  distributed  the  laurel. 

No  fair  barrister  of  kiss  -  right 
Was  she,  not  a  wise  professor 
Who  did  lecture  in  the  college 
Of  a  court  of  love  right  wisely — 

She,  the  fair  love  of  the  rabbi. 
Was  a  poor  and  saddened  sweetheart, 
Was  destruction's  woeful  image 
And  was  named  Jerusalem." 

While  at  Granada  he  practised  the  profes- 
sion of  medicine  to  provide  for  his  livelihood  ; 


64.  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

yet  all  his  spare  time  was  devoted  to  the  writ- 
ing of  masterpieces  of  poetry  in  the  three  lan- 
guages to  which  his  work  has  added  jewels. 
But  his  longest  and  greatest  poems,  dealing 
with  the  subject  that  was  ever  nearest  to  his 
heart — his  own  belief  and  his  own  people — 
were  written  in  Hebrew.  Among  these  there  is 
one  called  "  Chozari,"  which  marks  the  climax 
of  his  poetic  production.  In  the  form  of  this 
poem  he  seems  to  have  been  inspired  chiefly 
by  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Job,  and  by  the 
Platonic  Dialogues ;  for  it  is  in  the  more 
dramatic  form  of  a  dialogue  that  he  gives 
expression  to  these  his  loftiest  views.  He 
takes  the  pagan  prince,  who  feels  a  great 
thirst  for  religious  knowledge,  and  before 
slaking  it  at  one  of  the  three  great  sources — 
Judaism,  Christianity,  or  Mohammedanism — 
wishes  to  examine  the  three  severally.  Then 
the  essential  features  of  these  three  beliefs  are 
subjected  to  the  pagan  prince,  who  chooses 
Judaism.  The  poem  is  throughout  a  glorifi- 
cation of  the  Hebrew  faith,  but  it  also  contains 
a  lofty  conception  of  the  mission  of  the  Jew- 
ish people. 

The  degraded  form  of  slavery  which  Israel 
has  assumed  in  its  exile  among  the  peoples  is 


THE    MISSION   OF   THE    JEWS  65 

to  liis  mind  no  proof  of  its  degeneration  and 
hopelessness  for  the  futnre,  as  little  as  the 
spread  of  power  which  Christianit}^  and  Mo- 
hammedanism can  display  is  proof  of  the  di- 
vinity in  the  teaching  of  either.  Poverty  and 
misery,  which  are  the  causes  of  contempt  in 
the  eyes  of  man,  stand  liigher  in  the  eyes  of 
God  than  greatness  and  jDride.  While  the 
Christians  are  not  proud  of  those  who  hold 
worldly  power  among  them,  they  do  glory  in 
the  martyrs,  Christ  above  all,  who  enjoined 
upon  His  followers  that  they  should  offer  the 
left  cheek  to  him  who  strikes  the  right,  and 
they  are  proud  of  theu'  Apostles  who,  hum- 
bled and  despised,  suffered  martyrdom.  So, 
also,  the  Mohammedans  pride  themselves  upon 
the  assistants  of  their  prophet,  who  suffered 
much  sorrow  on  his  account. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  sufferers  is  Israel, 
because  it  is  to  mankind  what  the  heart  is  to 
the  human  organism.  As  the  heart  is  affected 
by  all  ailments  of  the  body,  so  the  Jewish  na- 
tion is  at  once  smitten  by  every  misfortune 
which  designedly  or  unwittingly  emanates 
from  the  people.  To  Israel  the  word  of  the 
prophet  applies  when  he  makes  the  people  of 
the   earth   say,  "  Surely    He   has   borne   our 

5 


66  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION" 

griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows."  But  in  spite 
of  its  unspeakable  misery  the  Jewish  people 
has  not  died  away,  but  is  rather  like  unto  one 
who  is  dangerously  ill,  on  whom  the  art  of 
the  physician  has  lost  its  effect,  but  who  ex- 
pects his  recovery  from  a  miracle.  To  Israel 
the  figure  of  the  prophet  Ezekiel  of  the  vision 
of  the  dry  bones  applies  when  he  says :  "  So 
I  prophesied  as  I  was  commanded,  and,  as  I 
prophesied,  there  was  a  noise,  and  behold  a 
shaking,  and  the  bones  came  together,  bone  to 
his  bone ;  and  when  I  beheld,  lo,  the  sinews 
and  the  flesh  came  upon  them,  and  the  skin 
covered  them  above ;  but  there  was  no  breath 
in  them.  Then  said  He  unto  me,  Prophesy 
unto  the  wind,  prophesy,  son  of  man,  and 
say  to  the  wind,  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God ; 
Come  from  the  four  winds,  O  breath,  and 
breathe  upon  the  slain,  that  they  may  live.' 
So  I  prophesied  as  He  commanded  me,  and 
the  breath  came  into  them,  and  they  lived, 
and  stood  up  upon  their  feet,  an  exceeding 
great  army." 

All  this  is  Israel  in  its  present  form  of  mis- 
ery. It  was  by  the  wondrous  design  of  Prov- 
idence that  the  people  of  Israel  was  dispersed 
over  the  world,  in  order  that  it  might  pen- 


f<,y'  or  Tj,-  - 

THE    MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS         :    .      67 

etrate  with  its  spirit  the  whole  of  humanity. 
The  race  of  Israel  is  like  unto  a  seed-corn  that 
is  laid  into  the  earth  and  for  a  time  vanishes 
from  the  sight  of  man,  appears  dissolved  into 
the  elements  of  its  surroundings,  and  has  re- 
tained no  trace  of  its  original  essence ;  but 
then  when  it  begins  to  sprout  and  grow  it 
again  assumes  its  original  nature,  the  disfig- 
uring shells  are  thrown  off,  and  it  purifies  the 
elements,  transforming  them  according  to  its 
own  essence,  until  step  by  step  it  leads  them 
to  higlier  growth.  When  once  the  race  of 
men,  prepared  by  Christianity  and  Islam,  will 
recognize  the  true  destiny  of  the  Jewish  na- 
tion as  the  bearer  of  divine  light,  they  will 
honor  the  root  upon  which  formerly  they 
looked  with  contempt ;  they  will  grow  more 
closely  to  it  and  will  become  purified  fruit, 
and  will  enter  into  the  Messianic  kingdom, 
which  is  the  fruit  of  the  tree. 

Eight  hundred  years  after  Yelmda-Ben- 
Halevi  lived,  suffered,  and  sang,  there  arose 
another  man  into  whose  soul  the  heavenly 
light  of  poetic  fire  had  also  been  blown.  It 
was  Heinrich  Heine,  born  at  Diisseldorf  in 
1799,  died  in  Paris,  1856.     He  was  endowed 


THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

with  poetic  genius  as  only  few  have  ever  been. 
Both  with  regard  to  his  poetry  and  his  prose 
writings  his  must  be  classed  among  the  very 
first  names  of  Germany.  But  in  the  mani- 
festations of  character  in  his  life  he  does  not 
represent  the  purity  and  grandeur  of  the  two 
great  Jews  whose  conception  of  the  Jewish 
mission  we  have  just  mentioned.  Yet,  in 
judging  this  great  man,  one  will  always  have 
to  consider  how  far  his  own  morbid  sense  of 
self-depreciation  and  of  paradoxical  obtrusion 
of  his  own  faults  give  a  true  picture  for  the 
estimation  of  his  life  and  character;  and  one 
w^ll  also  have  to  bear  in  mind  the  general  tone 
and  fashion  of  frivolity  or  dissoluteness  which 
characterized  the  romantic  period  in  which  he 
lived,  as  it  attaches  to  the  personality  of  most 
of  the  poets  of  that  age.  He  did  not  remain 
true  to  Judaism,  and  in  the  year  1825,  with 
some  protest,  lie  was  converted  to  Christianity. 
But  towards  the  close  of  his  life  the  spirit  of 
levity  seems  to  have  left  him,  and  with  it 
there  came  a  glowing  penetration  into  the 
depths  of  his  native  belief.  For  once  he 
seems  to  have  banished  entirely  the  satirical 
faun's  mask  with  which  he  was  wont  to  cover 
and  hide  his  true  features.     There  is  a  truth 


THE    MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  69 

and  depth  in  the  tone  of  his  confession  with 
regard  to  Judaism  which  one  never  meets  with 
in  all  his  other  writings,  and  he  thus  bursts 
into  a  thrilling  panegyric  on  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. "  The  Jews,"  he  says,  "  ought  to  con- 
sole themselves  that  they  have  lost  Jerusalem 
and  the  Ark;  such  a  loss  is  but  trifling  in 
comparison  with  the  Bible,  the  indestructible 
treasure  which  they  have  saved.  The  regen- 
eration of  my  religious  feeling  I  owe  to  this 
holy  book,  and  it  became  to  me  as  well  a  source 
of  salvation  as  an  object  of  the  most  glowing 
admiration.  I  had  not  been  particularly  fond 
of  Moses  formerly,  perhaps  because  the  Hel- 
lenic spirit  was  predominant  in  me,  and  I  could 
not  forgive  the  legislator  of  the  Jews  his  ha- 
tred towards  all  sensuous  form.  I  did  not 
see  that  Moses,  in  spite  of  his  attacks  upon 
art,  was  still  himself  a  great  artist.  Only  his 
artist's  spirit,  as  with  his  Egyptian  country- 
men, was  turned  towards  the  colossal  and  in- 
destructible. He  builded  pyramids  of  hu- 
manity {Menschen-Pyramide?i),  blocked  out 
obelisks  of  humanity  {MensGhen-Ohelishen): 
he  took  a  poor  shepherd  tribe  and  fashioned 
it  into  a  great  people  which  should  also  brave 
centuries,  a  great,  eternal,  holy  people,  a  peo- 


YO  THE    JEWISH    QUESTIOIT 

pie  of  God,  which  could  serve  all  other  na- 
tions as  a  model,  nay,  as  a  prototype  for  the 
whole  of  humanity.  He  created  Israel.  As 
I  have  not  always  spoken  with  due  reverence 
of  this  master,  so  have  I  slighted  his  work. 
Yes,  to  the  Jews,  to  whom  the  world  owes 
its  God,  it  also  owes  His  word,  the  Bible. 
They  have  saved  it  out  of  the  bankruptcy  of 
the  Eoman  empire,  and  in  the  wild  ruffian- 
ism of  the  mediaeval  migration  of  the  peoples 
they  preserved  the  dear  book,  until  Protest- 
antism sought  for  it  among  them  and  trans- 
lated the  discovered  book  into  the  modern 
languages,  and  distributed  it  over  all  the 
world." 

Heine  has  here  justly  valued  the  eternal  in- 
fluence which  the  Jewish  teachings  and  tradi- 
tions in  the  Bible  have  had  and  will  have  in 
all  times  and  climes.  He  with  all  historians 
and  moralists  has  recognized  the  force  of  He- 
braism in  whatever  garb,  in  whatever  sect  it 
makes  itself  felt,  as  one  of  the  religious  cur- 
rents in  civilized  morality.  And  it  is  ever  to 
be  wondered  at  how  the  Church,  which  in  ev- 
ery respect  arose  out  of  ancient  Judaism ;  how 
the  Protestant  sects,  which  owe  their  first  lio^ht 
to  it  and  to  the  Talmud ;  how  the  Puritans,  who 


THE    MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  71 

drew  from  it  not  only  their  religious  but  even 
their  political  inspiration,  should  not  have  but 
the  kindliest  feeling  of  reverence  and  piety 
for  the  people  whose  whole  essence  as  a  peo- 
ple is  based  upon  the  preservation  of  these  im- 
mortal documents.  The  Jews  have  been  and 
are  the  Old  Testament  transfused  into  flesh 
and  blood,  capable  of  life  and  of  death  and 
of  suffering  that  lies  between  the  two.  And 
whoever  has  hurt  them  by  word  or  deed,  as 
Jews,  has  besmirched  and  torn  the  leaves  of 
this  great  document,  adding  to  it  the  crime 
of  cruelty  in  wounding  the  soul  or  body  of  a 
fellow -man.  And  woe  to  him  who  has  the 
face  to  do  this  in  claiming  for  his  justifica- 
tion the  spirit  of  love  and  charity  which  in- 
spires the  writings  of  the  New  Testament ! 

But  besides  this  mission  of  the  Hebrews, 
which  may  lie  in  them  as  the  original  bearers 
of  Hebraism,  they  may  have  a  more  direct 
mission  as  a  people  in  themselves.  Hebraism, 
in  the  current  sense,  has  filtered  into  modern 
life  through  numerous  channels  that  may  have 
diverged,  or  fiown  in  separate  courses,  from 
the  main  current  of  Judaism.  But  the  main 
current  remains.    And  here  the  poetic  inspira- 


72  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION" 

tions  of  Yehuda-Ben-Hale vi  may  even  point 
to  a  sober  and  practical  mission  which  tlie 
Jews  have  hitherto  fuliilled,  and  which  may 
remain  for  them  in  the  future.  Their  one 
great  lesson  as  a  people  is  taught  in  their 
continuous  martyrdom  through  so  many  cen- 
turies, the  other  may  have  the  essence  of  its 
effectiveness  in  the  very  fact  of  their  disper- 
sion, which  even  the  unbeliever  may  look 
upon  as  a  wonderful,  if  not  miraculous,  dis- 
pensation of  Providence. 

Their  martyrdom  is  tlie  most  colossal  in- 
stance of  tlie  steadfastness  in  a  belief,  in  a 
great  spiritual  idea,  to  which  all  elements  of 
life  and  all  instincts  for  pleasure  and  even  of 
self-preservation  are  sacrificed.  To  degrade 
this  steadfastness  by  calling  it  obstinacy  is 
as  disingenuous  as  it  is  ungenerous.  Even  if 
the  object  of  tliis  great  spiritual  idea  is  con- 
sidered by  many  as  untrue  and  unworthy  of 
such  sacrifice,  the  fact  of  the  sacrifice  must 
remain  undisputed  ;  and  wlierever  moral  ef- 
forts are  in  themselves  considered  worthy  of 
admiration  and  respect,  there  admiration  and 
respect  can  never  be  denied  to  the  Jews.  On 
the  plains  of  human  suffering,  throughout  the 
whole  of  human  history,  tlieirs  will  be  the 


THE   MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  7^ 

highest  pyramid  of  suffering,  a  great  monu- 
ment of  idealism,  the  battling  with  the  mate- 
rial to  realize  an  idea. 

Yet  in  order  to  make  the  mission  of  teach- 
ing their  spiritual  lesson  to  the  world  at  large 
really  effective,  their  dispersion  becomes  itself 
a  necessity.  And  we  thus  come  upon  a  curi- 
ous contradiction  in  this  history  of  a  people : 
their  insulation  on  the  one  hand,  and  their  dis- 
persion on  the  other.  Their  insulation  was 
necessary  in  order  that  the  teachings  of  the 
moral  principles  which  they  embodied  should 
remain  undeliled  and  uncontaminated  through- 
out the  surging  waves  of  history  during  the 
last  two  thousand  years  ;  their  dispersion  all 
over  the  world,  on  the  other  hand,  makes  it 
physically  possible  that  the  means  of  com- 
municating their  message  are  at  hand  ;  and 
when  they  meet  with  willing  ears  into  which 
to  pour  what  good  they  have  to  impart,  the 
moral  need  for  this  isolation  no  longer  re- 
mains. It  is  then  that  the  phoenix  in  glow- 
ing colors  will  be  called  upon  to  make  the  last 
and  greatest  effort  of  self-sacrifice  to  a  noble 
idea:  to  bury  himself  and  see  himself  born 
anew  in  a  more  beautiful  and  resplendent 
form. 


.74  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Now  to  turn  to  the  actual  present  and  the 
state  of  affairs  we  have  before  us.  The  Jews 
are  dispersed  all  over  the  civilized  world,  and 
they  have  become  living  portions  of  the  coun- 
tries in  which  they  live.  They  are  still  recog- 
nized as  Jews,  but  it  is  only  the  form  which 
still  separates  them  from  their  fellow-citizens. 
Morally  and  intellectually  there  is  no  appre- 
ciable difference  between  them.  Before  they 
thus,  phoenix -like,  bury  their  own  separate 
existence,  it  will  be  right  for  them  to  ask 
whether  there  is  any  destiny  which  at  this 
moment  it  still  remains  for  them  to  bear  in 
mind,  and,  seeing  it,  conscientiously  to  live  up 
to.  We  shall  then  have  to  attempt  at  rec- 
ognizing what  practical  part  the  Jews  have 
within  the  past  fifty  years  played  in  modern 
civilization,  and  what  results  of  their  past  his- 
tory as  a  race  it  will  be  best  for  them  in 
modern  times  to  attempt  at  perpetuating  and 
infusing  into  the  general  life  in  which  they 
ought  to  dissolve.  Now,  in  their  practical  life 
also,  I  look  upon  the  Jews  as  the  chief  bearers 
of  what  I  should  like  to  call  spirituality. 

It  was  this  spirituality  which  caused  their 
opposition  to  the  Greeks  and  to  Hellenism 
with  the  heathen  sensuousness  or  sensuality. 


THE    MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  75 

This  to  a  certain  degree  caused  their  opposi- 
tion to  the  Church  of  Eome,  and  made  their 
teachings  and  principles  the  arms  used  by  the 
Puritans  against  the  sensuous  side  of  the 
Christian  Church  ;  and  it  is  this  which  may  lie 
at  bottom  of  a  certain  antagonism  which  ex- 
ists between  the  pronounced  types  of  the  Jew 
in  Europe  and  the  pronounced  representatives 
of  the  Northern  peoples,  especially  of  the 
Saxon  race. 

As  stated  in  the  preceding  chapter,  I  do  not 
believe  in  generalization  based  upon  ethno- 
logical distinctions,  and  I  deny  that  there  is 
any  fixed  unity  of  race  among  the  inhabitants 
of  the  northwest  of  Europe,  such  as  the  Ger- 
mans and  the  English,  and  of  the  Jews  among 
each  other,  when  considering  any  question  or 
measure  of  practical  politics.  Still,  we  may 
recognize  theoretically,  if  we  venture  upon  a 
bold  generalization,  the  ideal  type  of  the  pure 
Saxon  race  and  the  pure  Jewish  race  in  modern 
life.  And  in  these  exaggerated  types  we  may, 
it  is  true,  discover  an  almost  essential  antag- 
onism. The  Jew  then  stands  as  the  represen- 
tative of  intellectual  and  emotional  sensibility. 
The  direct  opposite  to  this  form  of  Hebraism 
is  not  Hellenism,  but  the  pure  Germanism 


V6  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

which  represents  the  more  physical  aspect  of 
the  soul — namely,  character.  The  Hebrew 
and  the  Saxon,  in  this  broadest  form  of  rongh 
generalization,  would  thus  represent,  the  one 
the  intellectual  and  emotional  side  of  man,  and 
the  other  the  substratum  to  the  working  of  this 
intellect  and  emotion,  that  which  remains  as 
a  solid  basis,  the  character.  To  be  perfect, 
each  organism  must  possess  the  proper  balance 
of  both  tliese  elements,  and  the  abnormal  and 
diseased  forms  of  life  are  caused  by  the  undue 
growth  of  the  one  at  the  cost  of  the  other. 
The  spiritual  and  intellectual  element  without 
the  substratum  of  solidifying  character  de- 
generates into  subtlety  and  trickiness,  and  even 
cowardice.  Character  without  the  infusion  of 
intellectual  and  emotional  sensibility  produces 
stubbornness  and  brutality.  Either  of  these 
diseases  leads  to  the  caricature  of  the  Jew  and 
of  the  Teuton.  But,  fortunately,  normal  life, 
with  its  variety  and  the  interpenetration  of 
different  influences,  has  rectified  the  possi- 
bility of  such  one-sided  developments.  The 
modern  Jew  w^io  has  lived  in  unhampered 
intercourse  with  the  Saxon  has  had  this  more 
physical  side  of  his  nature  developed,  and  has 
had  moral  sturdiness  infused ;  in  its  spiritual 


THE    MISSION    OF    THE    JEWS  77 

refinement  his  nature  has  received  more  body 
and  substance  from  it.  While  I  maintain 
emphatically  that  the  Saxon,  notably  the  Ger- 
man, has  derived  great  benefit  from  tlie  infu- 
sion of  that  subtler,  more  active,  more  refined, 
and  more  sensitive  element  which  the  Jew 
has  brouo^ht  into  the  German  communities. 
It  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  chance  that  with 
Lessing  begins  the  real  German  period  of  en- 
lightenment and  of  literary  taste ;  that  he  and 
Mendelssohn  complemented  and  supplemented 
one  another.  I  venture  to  say  that  it  was  the 
infusion  of  this  element,  inherent  in  the  Jew, 
into  the  German  mind  and  character  which  to 
a  great  extent  accounts  for  the  fairest  fruits 
of  German  culture  which  the  world  has  reaped 
within  the  last  hundred  years;  as  the  German 
element,  when  it  did  not  repress  and  crush, 
was  needed  by  the  Jew  in  order  to  produce 
such  noble,  clever,  delicately  and  still  strongly 
organized  flowers  of  humanity  as  now  grace 
all  the  intellectual  walks  of  German  life  in 
literature,  science,  and  art. 

It  is,  however,  true  that  in  cases  of  social 
disease,  when  the  social  machinery  is  not  prop- 
erly regulated  in  itself,  and  the  contending 
forces  are  not  kept  within  proper  bounds,  the 


78  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

one  may  feast  upon  the  other;  they  may  grow 
at  each  other's  expense.  It  is  the  nature  of 
modern  civilized  life  to  favor  moral  and  intel- 
lectual forces  in  their  struggle  with  the  phys- 
ical elements  that  may  contend  with  them. 
But  this  is  a  matter  of  historical  and  social 
evolution,  the  result  of  general  causes,  with 
which  the  Jews  have  nothing  to  do.  Whether 
it  be  deplored  or  not,  it  lies  so  deeply  at  the 
foundation  of  civilized  life  that  we  must  alter 
the  whole  nature  of  this  life  if  we  wish  to 
change  any  of  its  manifestations.  Yet  in  so 
far  the  Jews  need  not  feel  too  much  offended 
if  they  are  called  parasitic  in  their  function, 
for  it  is  hardly  supposed  to  mark  a  lower 
stage  when  the  mind  feasts  upon  the  body. 
Yet  I  maintain  that  wherever  the  Jewish  in- 
genuity has  undermined  the  economical  wel- 
fare of  the  peasantry  or  other  classes  of  mod- 
ern communities,  it  was  either  a  passing  state 
for  which  they  cannot  be  held  to  account,  in- 
asmuch as  they  were  forced  to  call  exclusive- 
ly upon  those  faculties,  being  shut  out  from 
all  other  occupations ;  or  it  is  simply  the  out- 
come of  general  currents  of  modern  econom- 
ical life  for  which  the  Jews  are  in  no  way  to 
be  held  accountable.     Yet  the  fact  remains 


THE    MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  19 

that  in  this  capacity,  as  an  intellectual  and 
emotional  force  in  contradistinction  to  more 
physical  forces,  the  so-called  Jew  is  opposed 
to  the  so-called  German,  and  has  always  been. 
But  such  Germanenthum  and  such  Judaism 
are  not  accurate  terms  now.  The  type  of  the 
coarse  German  is  the  natural  enemy  of  the 
more  refined  German,  as  he  is  of  the  refined 
Jew;  and  the  shifting,  tricky,  characterless 
Jew  is  as  much  the  enemy  of  the  Jewish  man 
of  honor  as  he  is  of  the  honorable  German. 
Still,  recognizing  the  dangers  to  which  the 
exaggerations  of  his  spiritual  virtues  may  lead 
him,  the  Jew  must  learn  his  lesson,  and  try 
to  guard  against  any  possible  disease  within 
his  soul's  forces,  in  emphasizing  in  his  educa- 
tion the  physical  side  of  his  soul,  which  he 
can  best  do  by  means  of  a  proper  culture  of 
his  own  physique,  and  of  all  the  habits  which 
such  cnlture  leads  to.  Still,  let  him  cling  to 
the  good  that  has  come  from  the  predominance 
of  the  spiritual  over  the  sensuous  elements  in 
his  life  and  teaching,  especially  in  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  sensual  vices,  which  (in  spite  of 
any  individual  instance  which  may  be  adduced 
to  the  contrary)  he  has  kept  up  in  all  periods 
of  his  history.     Let  him  hand  on  the  torch  of 


80  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

purity  and  temperance  wliicli  have  been  one 
of  the  chief  causes  of  his  wonderful  survival 
during  all  this  period  of  adversity  and  of  his 
great  success  in  the  walks  of  life,  as  well  as 
the  ultimate  cause  of  much  of  the  hatred  and 
envy  which  are  showered  upon  him.  This 
spirituality,  strengthened  by  a  continuous  per- 
secution from  without,  has  also  caused  him 
to  turn  his  affections  in  an  intensified  form 
towards  the  inner  life  of  his  family ;  and  this 
piety  and  devotion  of  the  members  of  a  fam- 
ily to  one  another,  which  has  clung  to  the 
Jew  to  whatever  depths  of  degradation  cir- 
cumstances may  have  dragged  him,  is  one  of 
the  features  which,  with  the  dissolution  of  his 
formal  exclusiveness,  he  must  ever  keep  alive, 
hand  down,  and  be  the  means  of  diffusing 
among  the  community  into  which  his  racial 
life  will  dissolve  itself. 

This  is  the  mission  of  the  Jews,  in  so  far  as 
each  Jew  can  act  individually  upon  his  sur- 
roundings. But  there  is  a  mission  which,  to 
use  a  paradoxical  phrase,  the  Jews  have,  col- 
lectively, as  a  dispersed  race :  It  is  the  vocation 
of  the  Jews  to  facilitate  international  humani- 
tarianism ;  and  this  they  will  do,  and  are  do- 
ing, not  by  any  doctrinaire  effort  of  individual 


THE    MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  81 

theorists  or  preachers,  but  by  their  position  of 
a  dispersed  people,  which  has,  and  is  bound  to 
have,  influence. 

Tlie  present  foreign  policy  of  European 
states  shows  a  disastrous  confusion  which 
marks  a  transition.  It  is  the  death-struggle  of 
nationalism,  and  the  transition  to  a  more  ac- 
tive and  real  form  of  general  international 
federation.  In  this  death-struggle  we  have 
the  swan -song  of  the  past  dynastic  traditions 
in  monarchy  giving  form,  and  often  heat  and 
intensity,  to  the  contest  upheld  in  certain 
customs  of  diplomatic  machinery,  with,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  birth-struggle  towards  the  or- 
ganization of  international  life,  the  needs  of 
which  are  at  present  only  felt  practically  in 
the  sphere  of  commerce.  This  birth -struggle 
at  present  manifests  itself  chiefly  in  narrow 
and  undignified  jealousy  and  envy  for  com- 
mercial advantages ;  and  this,  unfortunately, 
is  growing  the  supreme  ultimate  aim  of  all 
international  emulation.  We  can  trace  nearly 
all  the  diplomatic  rivalry  ultimately  to  the  in- 
terests of  commerce  and  the  greed  for  money. 
One  often  hears  it  said  that  Jewish  bankers 
make  and  unmake  wars.  This  is  not  true. 
Money  makes  and  unmakes  wars  ;  and  if  there 

6 


82  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

were  not  tins  greed  of  money  among  the  con- 
tending people  the  bankers  would  not  be  called 
upon  at  all.  There  are,  of  course,  further 
complications  favoring  the  older  spirit  of  na- 
tional envy,  which  is  dying,  though  far  from 
being  dead.  Such  are  the  influences  of  the 
huge  military  organizations,  definite  wounds 
unhealed  (such  as  the  feeling  of  reprisal  on 
the  part  of  France),  and,  finally,  the  last  phases 
of  the  artificial  bolstering  up  of  the  idea  of 
the  national-staat  in  Germany  and  Italy.  But 
the  whole  of  this  conception  of  nationalism,  in 
so  far  as  it  implies  an  initial  hatred  and  enmity 
towards  other  national  bodies,  is  doomed.  A 
few  generations,  perhaps,  of  disaster  and  mis- 
ery accompanying  this  death-struggle  will  see 
the  new  era. 

Now,  there  are  several  practical  factors 
which  are  paving  the  way  indirectly  towards 
the  broader  national  life  of  this  coming  era. 
They  are,  strange  to  say,  the  two  main  oppo- 
site forces  of  the  economical  life  of  the  day : 
Capital  and  Labor.  Each  of  these,  separately 
following  the  inherent  impulse  of  its  great 
forces,  which  constantly  run  counter  to  one 
another,  tends  towards  the  same  goal,  especial- 
ly in  its  pronounced  forms.     Capital  does  this 


THE    MISSION    OF    THE    JEWS  83 

in  the  great  international  houses  and  in  the 
Stock  Exchanges ;  Labor,  since  the  first  Inter- 
national Convention  of  1867,  in  its  great  labor 
organizations.  The  higlily  developed  system 
of  modern  banking  business  and  of  the  Stock 
Exchange,  favored  by  the  rapid  and  easy 
means  of  intercommunication  without  regard 
to  distance,  has  made  all  countries,  however 
far  apart,  sensitive  to  the  fate  which  befalls 
each ;  and  this  tends  more  and  more  to  make 
Capital  an  international  unit,  which  can  be, 
and  is  being,  used,  whatever  its  origin,  in  all 
the  different  quarters  where  there  seems  a 
promising  demand  for  it."^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  growth  of  organiza- 
tion among  the  representatives  of  labor  is  fast 
stepping  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  national 
boundaries,  and  the  common  interests  tend  to 
increase  the  directness  of  this  wider  institu- 

*  But  let  no  man  from  the  camp  of  the  capitalist  (as  some 
anti-Semitic  German  politicians  have  endeavored  to  do)  charge 
the  Jews  with  being  the  instigators  to  Socialism,  nor  let  a 
Socialist  urge  his  fellow -partisans  to  an  anti- Jewish  riot; 
for  the  leading  spirits  of  both  these  antagonistic  forces  were 
Jews:  the  bankers,  such  as  the  Rothschilds  ;  and  the  econo- 
mists, such  as  Lasalle  and  Karl  Marx.  The  capitalists  can- 
not curse  the  Jews,  and  the  Socialists  cannot  dynamite  the 
Jews  without  disowning  their  very  leaders. 


84  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

tion.  I  am  not  adducing  these  facts  in  order 
to  suggest  any  solution  of  the  numerous  prob- 
lems which  they  involve,  nor  to  direct  the  at- 
tention to  the  interesting  historical,  econom- 
ical, and  political  questions  to  which  they  may 
give  rise;  but  simply  to  draw  attention  to 
the  one  fact — that  in  this  aspect  both  capital 
and  labor  are  effectively  paving  the  way,  per- 
haps unknown  to  the  extreme  representatives 
of  either  interest,  towards  the  increase  of  a 
strong  and  active  cosmopolitan  spirit  of  hu- 
manitarianism.  And  this  spirit,  at  least  as  an 
ideal,  is  certainly  dominant  in  the  minds  of  the 
best  and  wisest  people  of  our  generation. 

JSTow  there  will  have  to  be  men  who,  in 
their  nature,  as  it  were  their  predestination, 
correspond  to  this  ultimate  aim  of  humanity, 
and  are  adapted  to  this  international  cosmopoli- 
tanism ;  and  by  their  sad  history  and  their  in- 
ternational relationship  the  Jews  will  be  the 
fittest  bearers  of  this  destiny.  Whether  near 
at  hand  or  remote,  this  may  be  the  great  Mes- 
sianic era  to  which  we  may  all  look.  As  far 
as  outer  conditions  are  concerned,  the  Jews  are 
nearest  to  realizing  the  future  ideal  of  man :  the 
greatest  scope  of  individual  freedom  with  the 
most  intense  social  feeling  and  organization. 


THE    MISSIOIT    OF   THE    JEWS  85 

There  is  no  doubt  that  tins  ideal  of  cosmopoli- 
tanism may  be  a  dangerous  one,  and  that  much 
can  be  said  in  favor  of  the  preservation  of  our 
national  feeling  as  a  source  of  inspiration  and 
a  motive  to  ennobling  action.  George  Eliot,  in 
her  Impressions  of  Theophrastiis  Such,  has 
argued  the  case  with  her  usual  depth  and 
clearness.  ''That  the  preservation  of  national 
memories,"  she  says,  ''is  an  element  and  a 
means  of  national  greatness  ;  that  their  revival 
is  a  sign  of  reviving  nationality ;  that  every 
lieroic  defender,  every  patriotic  restorer,  has 
been  inspired  by  such  memories,  and  has  made 
them  his  watchword ;  that  even  such  a  corpo- 
rate existence  as  that  of  a  Roman  legion  or  an 
English  regiment  has  been  made  valorous  by 
memorial  standards  —  these  are  the  glorious 
commonplaces  of  historic  teaching  at  our  pub- 
lic schools  and  universities,  being  happily  in- 
grained in  Greek  and  Latin  classics."  She 
then  quotes,  as  instances  of  the  powerful  effect 
of  such  national  memories,  the  restoration  of 
the  modern  kingdom  of  Greece  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  Italy,  and  repeats  Freeman's 
injunction  upon  Englishmen  to  strengthen 
the  patriotic  fibre  in  them  by  the  infusion  of 
the  great  memories  of  their  early  Saxon  fore- 


86  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

fathers.  "  To  this  view  of  our  nationality," 
she  continues,  "  most  persons  who  have  feel- 
ing and  understanding  enough  to  be  conscious 
of  the  connection  between  the  patriotic  affec- 
tion and  every  other  affection  which  lifts  us 
above  emigrating  rats  and  free-loving  baboons, 
will  be  disposed  to  say  Amen. . . .  The  historian 
guides  ns  rightly  in  urging  us  to  d'well  on  the 
virtues  of  our  ancestors  with  emulation,  and 
to  cherish  our  sense  of  a  common  descent  as  a 
bond  of  obligation.  The  eminence,  the  noble- 
ness of  a  people  depends  on  its  capability  of 
being  stirred  by  memories,  and  of  striving  for 
what  we  call  spiritual  ends — ends  which  con- 
sist not  in  immediate  material  possession,  but 
in  the  satisfaction  of  a  great  feeling  that  ani- 
mates the  collective  body  as  with  one  soul.  A 
people  having  the  seed  of  worthiness  in  it  must 
feel  an  answering  thrill  when  it  is  adjured  by 
the  deaths  of  its  heroes  who  died  to  preserve  its 
national  existence  ;  when  it  is  reminded  of  its 
small  beginnings  and  gradual  growth  through 
past  labors  and  struggles,  such  as  are  still  de- 
manded of  it  in  order  that  the  freedom  and 
well-being  thus  inherited  may  be  transmitted 
unimpaired  to  children  and  children's  children ; 
when  an  appeal  against  the  permission  of  in- 


THE    MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  87 

justice  is  made  to  great  precedents  in  its  his- 
tory and  to  the  better  genius  breathing  in  its 
institutions.  It  is  this  living  force  of  senti- 
ment in  common  which  makes  a  national  con- 
sciousness. Nations  so  moved  will  resist  con- 
quest with  the  very  breasts  of  their  women, 
will  pay  their  millions  and  their  blood  to  abol- 
ish slavery,  will  share  privation  in  famine  and 
all  calamity,  will  produce  poets  to  sing  'some 
great  story  of  a  man,'  and  thinkers  whose  the- 
ories will  bear  the  test  of  action.  An  individ- 
ual man,  to  be  harmoniously  great,  must  be- 
long to  a  nation  of  this  order,  if  not  in  actual 
existence,  yet  existing  in  the  past,  in  memory, 
as  a  departed,  invisible,  beloved  ideal,  once  a 
reality,  and  perhaps  to  be  restored.  A  com- 
mon humanity  is  not  yet  enough  to  feed  the 
rich  blood  of  various  activity  which  makes  a 
complete  man.  The  time  is  not  come  for  cos- 
mopolitanism to  be  highly  virtuous,  any  more 
than  for  communism  to  suffice  for  social  ener- 
gy. . .  .  For,  to  repeat,  not  only  the  nobleness  of 
a  nation  depends  on  the  presence  of  this  nation- 
al consciousness,  but  also  the  nobleness  of  each 
individual  citizen.  Our  dignity  and  rectitude 
are  proportioned  to  our  sense  of  relationship 
with  something  great,  admirable,  pregnant  with 


88  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

higli  possibilities,  worthy  of  sacrifice,  a  contin- 
ual inspiration  to  self-repression  and  discipline 
by  the  presentation  of  aims  larger  and  more 
attractive  to  our  generous  part  than  the  se- 
curing of  personal  ease  or  prosperity. 

"  And  a  people  possessing  this  good  should 
surely  feel  not  only  a  ready  sympathy  with 
the  effort  of  those  who,  having  lost  the  good, 
strive  to  regain  it,  but  a  profound  pity  for 
any  degradation  resulting  from  its  loss ;  nay, 
something  more  than  pity  when  happier  na- 
tionalities have  made  victims  of  the  unfort- 
unate whose  memories  nevertheless  are  the 
very  fountain  to  which  the  persecutors  trace 
their  most  vaunted  blessings."  She  then  con- 
tinues, while  powerfully  refuting  the  preju- 
dices against  the  Jews,  to  argue  in  favor  of 
the  retention  and  even  restoration  of  their 
nationality. 

Though  I  am  heartily  in  sympathy  with 
the  whole  of  this  remarkable  essay  of  hers,  I 
do  not  agree  with  her  in  considering  it  desir- 
able that  the  Jewish  nationality  should  be  re- 
stored, at  least  as  far  as  the  Occidental  Jews 
are  concerned.  Nor  do  I  think  it  desirable 
that  they  should  dwell  to  any  practical  extent 
upon  the  memories  of  the  past  history  of  the 


THE    MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  89 

Jews,  even  though  they  may  cling  to  Juda- 
ism, by  which  I  mean  the  Jewish  religion, 
with  all  its  traditions  of  the  past.  J'or  Juda- 
ism does  not  interfere  with  the  feeling  of  na- 
tional patriotism  for  the  Western  country  in 
which  the  Jew  is  born  and  his  ancestors  have 
lived,  any  more  than  Christianity  does  with 
its  own  traditions  of  the  past.  The  English, 
the  Germans,  the  Dutch,  the  French,  and  the 
Italians  are  most  of  them  Christians,  and  many 
may  be  imbued  with  the  great  traditions  of 
their  Church ;  but  this  will  make  them  none 
the  less  English,  Germans,  Dutchmen,  French- 
men, or  Italians.  This  only  applies  to  religion, 
and  not  to  race.  The  inspiring  influences  of 
the  past,  which  George  Eliot  so  eloquently 
puts  forward,  need  not  be  confounded  as  re- 
gards the  Occidental  Jew  with  the  racial  his- 
tory of  the  Jews.  The  English,  the  German, 
or  the  French  Jew  has  to  the  same  degree 
tlie  heritage  of  the  great  past  of  England, 
Germany,  and  France  as  any  other  citizen  of 
these  nations ;  and  if  he  have  not  immediate 
Saxon,  Teutonic,  or  Burgundian  descent,  nei- 
ther have  those  of  Norman  or  Celtic,  of 
Wendish  or  Slav,  of  Breton  or  pure  Gallic 
descent.     The  inspiring  influences  of  the  past 


90  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

need  not  he  less  potent  for  being  clearly 
defined  within  the  period  of  more  accurate 
history,  and  of  being  despoiled  of  the  nebu- 
lous tradition  of  uncertain  ethnological  hy- 
potheses. 

I  am  also  in  sympathy  with  George  Eliot 
when  she  says  that  the  time  is  not  come  for 
cosmopolitanism  to  be  highly  virtuous,  but  I  do 
look  upon  a  certain  form  of  cosmopolitanism 
as  a  practical  ideal  which  it  is  well  for  us  to 
hold  before  us.  And  I  venture  to  believe  that 
this  great  novelist  and  philosopher  would  have 
agreed  with  me.  I  know  that  many  thoughtful 
people  are  repelled  by  the  idea  of  cosmopoli- 
tanism because  of  their  love  of  "individual- 
ity." They  consider  the  free  and  varied  ex- 
pression of  the  inner  and  outer  capabilities  of 
single  men  and  of  larger  bodies  of  men  to  be 
one  of  the  most  desirable  conditions  of  life. 
With  this  I  also  agree.  But  I  do  not  consider 
cosmopolitanism,  as  I  conceive  it,  as  in  any  way 
destructive  of  individuality;  on  the  contrary, 
I  think  it  will  further  it.  The  analogy,  which 
I  do  not  wish  to  pursue  further,  at  once  sug- 
gests itself  between  cosmopolitanism  and  re- 
stricted nationalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  free- 
trade  and  protection  in  economical  life  on  the 


THE   MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  91 

other.  Cosmopolitanism  will,  I  trust,  encour- 
age rather  than  repress  the  desirable  expres- 
sion of  individuality  both  for  states  and  for 
individuals.  Federation  of  states  (by  which 
I  emphatically  do  not  mean  centralization  of 
life,  interest,  and  of  intellectual  leadership 
within  one  metropolis)  gives  perhaps  a  great- 
er chance  for  the  free  expression  of  individual 
characteristics  within  the  proper  channels  of 
activity.  The  natural  conditions,  the  local  dif- 
ferences, will  of  themselves  work  in  this  direc- 
tion ;  and  we  can  see  how  they  are  acting  in 
the  United  States  of  xlmerica,  where,  I  should 
say,  there  is  in  many  respects  a  growth  rather 
than  a  decrease  of  individualization  in  the  va- 
rious districts.  It  is  true  we  do  notice  the 
dying  away  of  local  peculiarities,  costume, 
habits  of  living  and  of  uncleanliness  in  the  re- 
moter districts  of  Europe ;  but  this  is  not  due 
to  the  action  of  the  cosmopolitan  spirit,  but 
to  rapid  communication,  the  spread  of  educa- 
tion, and  other  influences.  And  in  estimating 
these  changes  we  must  carefully  guard  against 
attaching  too  much  weight  to  our  own  selfish 
artistic  interest  and  craving  for  the  pictu- 
resque, in  which,  under  the  veil  of  philanthro- 
py, we  may  be  looking  upon  our  fellow-men 


92  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

as  puppets  that  are  dancing  for  our  edification 
upon  a  miniature  stage  of  our  own  making. 
Frenchmen,  Englishmen,  Italians,  Germans, 
and  Americans  are  pronounced  in  their  indi- 
viduality, and  will  remain  so  for  ages  to  come, 
in  spite  of  the  growth  of  the  cosmopolitan 
spirit ;  and  we  need  not  be  much  afraid  of  its 
extinction.  But  what  cosmopolitanism  must 
set  itself  to  counteract  is  not  the  positive  ex- 
pression of  individuality,  but  its  negative  atti- 
tude. We  hope  that  national  traditions  will 
remain  in  their  inspiring  force,  but  that  na- 
tional antagonisms  and  jealousies  will  grow 
less  intense  and  perhaps  cease ;  that,  as  they 
go,  more  active  steps  for  friendly  intercom- 
munication will  be  made;  that  commercial  and 
ij*dustrial  life  will  be  ordered  and  regulated 
^nd  elevated  out  of  the  chaotic  state  of  futile 
internecine  waste  and  destruction.  We  hope 
that  civilized  peoples  will  really  live  up  to  the 
feelings,  which  in  all  other  respects  they  have, 
of  the  common  ties  of  civilization,  and  in  so 
far  of  a  common  history.  This  will  be  the 
basis  of  the  feeling  for  cosmopolitanism  which 
we  hold  as  a  practical  ideal,  and  from  being  a 
feeling  it  will  lead  to  definite  and  direct  be- 
neficent action. 


THE   MISSION   OF   THE   JEWS  93 

The  essence  of  cosmopolitanism  is  the  wi- 
dening of  human  sympatliies ;  and  it  is  as  false 
to  think  that  it  will  lead  to  the  weakening  of 
proper  national  feeling,  as  it  is  an  error  to 
believe  that  the  widening  of  our  sympathies 
makes  them  less  intense  when  at  any  time 
they  are  directed  into  narrower  channels,  and 
weakens  our  power  of  affection.  If  charity 
begins  at  home,  it  might  with  equal  truth  be 
maintained  that  charity  begins  away  from 
home ;  that  in  a  measure,  as  it  is  really  re- 
moved from  self,  does  it  become  charity  in  the 
truest  sense.  The  physical  analogy  which  peo- 
ple unconsciously  have  in  their  minds  when 
they  misunderstand  the  nature  of  sympathy  is 
drawn  from  the  world  of  solid  or  fluid  bodies. 
The  more  you  extend  these,  the  wider  you 
spread  them,  the  less  will  they  have  in  depth. 
And  so  it  is  supposed  that  the  wider  the  area 
over  which  you  extend  your  sympathies,  the 
less  will  be  their  depth  at  any  given  point. 
But  this  analogy  is  misleading.  Sympathy  is 
force,  and  not  matter;  it  is  a  high  function  of 
a  highly  organized  body ;  the  more  you  exer- 
cise this  function,  the  more  you  increase  your 
heart's  vitality  in  different  directions,  the  great- 
er will  be  the  force  when  concentrated  into  one 


94  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

effort.  The  narrowing  and  cramping  of  sym- 
pathies leads  to  atrophy  of  the  affections ;  give 
them  play,  and  they  will  retain  their  health 
and  vitality.  I  wonld  appeal  to  tlie  actual 
observation  and  experience  of  the  reader  with 
regard  to  the  life  that  he  knows  intimately 
and  can  see  about  him.  I  venture  to  hold 
that  the  cases  in  which  he  finds  people  whose  * 
sympathies  and  affections  are  bounded  by  their 
own  families,  with  a  negative  attitude  towards 
people  beyond  these  bounds,  are  not  as  con- 
siderate and  sympathetic  to  the  members  of 
their  own  family  as  those  whose  sympathies 
know  no  such  narrow  restrictions.  For  love, 
unless  guided  by  sympathy,  is  closely  akin  to 
selfishness.  And  the  further  you  proceed  in 
the  scale  the  more  will  you  realize  this.  Wher- 
ever there  is  a  marked  negative  boundary  to 
the  affections,  be  it  by  the  clan,  or  the  town- 
ship, or  the  county,  or  the  country,  these  af-, 
fections  are  not  proof  against  trials,  they  are 
not  so  thoroughly  permeated  by  right  altruistic 
thought  as  where  unselfishness  has  been  raised 
into  a  positive  faculty  by  being  removed  ha- 
bitually away  from  the  centre  of  self,  the  fur- 
ther away  the  stronger.  The  man  who  only 
loves  himself  does  not  love  himself  well.     He 


THE    MISSION    OF   THE    JEWS  95 

lias  not  practised  putting  himself  into  other 
people's  places,  and  he  will  therefore  be  unjust 
to  himself,  and  dissatisfied  when  his  immediate 
desires  are  thwarted. 

On  this  account  I  maintain  that  cosmopoli- 
tanism, which  means  an  effective  widening  of 
national  sympathies,  will  in  no  way  diminish 
our  power  of  national  affection. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  this  ultimate  ideal  of  the 
future  of  humanity,  the  question  will  come  to 
the  Jew,  as  well  as  to  others,  what  the  imme- 
diate duty  of  each  citizen  in  a  civilized  state 
who  holds  such  an  ideal  is  ?  And  here  again 
the  Jew,  in  his  own  history  and  in  the  contra- 
dictory elements  which  his  fate  has  united  in 
him,  approaches  nearest  to  a  possible  solution. 
He  has,  on  the  one  hand,  the  intense  love  of 
family,  and,  on  the  other,  the  history  of  his 
people  presents  to  him  the  feeling  of  a  disper- 
sion over  the  earth.  Joining  the  spirit  of 
these  two  facts  together,  he  can  thus  solve  the 
problem  which  vexes  many  a  thoughtful  and 
conscientious  citizen  in  our  days  :  the  diffi- 
culty of  bringing  into  harmony  the  dictates 
of  patriotism  and  the  love  of  humanity.  Just 
as  in  him  the  tangible  and  actively  moving 
impulse  of  affection  for  those  that  are  imme- 


96  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

diately  about  liim  in  no  way  kept  him  from 
being  stirred  by  the  intangible  ties  which 
bound  him  to  his  distant  coreligionists,  of 
whose  physical  existence  he  had  no  percepti- 
ble evidence,  so  he  can  realize  how  the  duties 
of  patriotism  can  fill  his  soul,  and  still  leave 
room  for  active  sympathy  with  his  fellow-men 
in  other  countries.  We  have,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  ultimate  idea  of  cosmopolitanism, 
and  the  immediate  love,  loyalty,  and  self-sac- 
rificing energy  of  the  home -feeling  in  patri- 
otism. Now,  the  fusing  force  which  binds 
these  two  ideal  factors  together,  which  makes 
cosmopolitanism  more  and  more  a  necessity, 
and  which  at  the  same  time  can  direct  the 
course  of  patriotism,  is  the  Hellenic  idea  of 
culture  and  civilization.  In  making  each  home 
and  each  state  the  most  civilized  and  cultured 
we  necessarily,  de  facto ^  approach  cosmopoli- 
tanism. This  idea  (whether  the  practical  poli- 
tician is  conscious  of  it  or  not)  is  at  present 
the  highest  touchstone  —  the  ideal  foundation 
of  all  our  national  and  international  policy. 
"Whatever  adds  to  the  growth  of  this  civiliza- 
tion is  good  for  the  separate  state,  and  at  the 
same  time  tends  to  the  ultimate  ideal  of  cos- 
mopolitanism, which  ideal  is  not  furthered  by 


THE    MISSION   OF   THE   JEWS  97 

the  denial  of  national  ties  and  the  coquetting 
with  premature  figments  of  unsound  cosmo- 
politanism. And,  on  the  other  hand,  what- 
ever tends  to  oppose  this  growth  of  civiliza- 
tion, in  all  its  forms,  is  bad  for  the  separate 
state,  for  national  and  international  life.  It  is 
thus  that  Hebraism  and  Hellenism — contend- 
ing with  one  another  in  Philo,  declared  by 
Heine  to  be  divorced — will  ultimately  be  fused 
together  in  a  modern  life. 

There  is  a  curious  analogy,  within  a  marked 
difference,  between  the  modern  Greek  nation 
and  the  Jews.  As  in  their  dispersion  the  Jews 
are  the  most  physically  tangible  and  purest 
representatives  of  Hebraism,  however  weak 
and  however  dispersed,  so  the  modern  Greek 
state  is  the  most  tangible  remnant  of  ancient 
Hellenism.  But  as  Hebraism  consists  in  pure- 
ly intellectual  and  moral  ideas,  whereas  Hel- 
lenism appeals  to  the  more  sensuous  and  aes- 
thetic faculties,  the  physically  perceptible 
representation  of  Hellenism  is  necessarily  as- 
sociated with  the  works,  remains,  literature, 
and  local  associations  of  the  country.  There- 
fore it  is  to  be  found  in  the  Greek  land  and 
in  the  country's  monuments  themselves.  The 
Greeks,  therefore,  fulfil  their  ideal  vocation  in 

7 


98  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

concentration  in  their  own  country  itself,  and 
in  regenerating  and  vivifying  our  classical  as- 
sociations ;  whereas  the  Jews  fulfil  their  voca- 
tion in  their  very  dispersion.  But  if  the  mod- 
ern Greeks  and  the  modern  Jews  are  conscious 
of  this  their  highest  vocation,  they  must  have 
the  motto  noblesse  oblige.  They  have  a  great 
past  history  to  live  up  to,  and  their  duties  will 
be  greater  than  tliose  of  their  fellow-citizens. 

And  those  who  are  not  Jews,  realizing  the 
great  past  history  of  this  people,  feeling  what 
in  their  dispersion  and  suffering  they  stand 
for,  as  the  living  bearers  of  high  ideals,  it  will 
be  their  duty  to  favor  and  not  to  repress  their 
fellow-citizens  who  spring  from  this  oldest  of 
peoples.'  And  I  would  appeal  to  the  sense  of 
chivalry  which  rales  the  social  actions  of  every 
gentleman  tliat  he  should  respect  the  digni- 
ty of  these  people.  The  Decalogue  was  the 
foundation  of  our  social  morality ;  but  as  our 
life  has  developed,  so  have  the  spheres  of  pos- 
sible wrong-doing  been  multiplied  and  diver- 
sified. These  laws  will  always  remain,  and 
have  for  the  greater  part  been  incorporated 
into  our  civic  law.  We  are  not  likely  to  steal 
and  murder,  but  we  are  likely  to  kill  the  dig- 
nity and  self-respect  of  our  neighbors.     And 


THE   MISSION    OF    THE   JEWS  99 

if  not  as  gentlemen  and  as  men  of  noble  and 
generous  hearts,  then  as  Christians,  we  are 
bound  to  respect  and  to  succor  those  who 
may  not  be  placed  in  the  same  advantageous  po- 
sition as  we  are.  Where  is  the  love  preached 
by  Christ,  if  we  wound  the  sensibilities  of  our 
neighbor  and  draw  the  heart-blood  of  his  self- 
esteem  ? 

And  as  for  the  Jew,  if  he  dwell  upon  the 
past  history  of  his  ancestors,  he  may  feel  the 
modest  pride,  the  joy  of  knowing  that  he  be- 
longs to  the  oldest  of  civilized  races,  which 
has  continually  handed  on  the  torch  of  truth 
and  enlightenment  for  centuries,  during  which 
the  peoples  of  Europe  were  even  wallowing 
in  brutality  and  ignorance.  And  holding  the 
high  ideal  mission  which  his  descent  has  laid 
upon  him  before  his  eyes,  let  him  devote  his 
energies  to  the  national  life  in  which  he  is 
born.  He  will  then  be  able  to  ignore  the  petty 
slurs  that  may  be  cast  upon  him  by  ignorance, 
and,  maintaining  his  dignified  modesty,  let 
him  feel  that  whosoever  flaunts  his  apparent 
social  advantages  into  his  face  is  a  snob,  wheth- 
er he  be  a  prince  of  the  blood  or  a  leader  of 
modern  politics. 


Ill 

THE  SOCIAL  POSITION  OF  THE  JEWS  IN   THE   MID- 
DLE  AGES   AND   MODERN   TIMES 

The  late  Mr.  James  Kussell  Lowell  was 
wont  to  say  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
great  families  of  the  English  aristocracy  had 
some  admixture  of  Jewish  blood,  while  some 
of  the  great  names  were  in  a  direct  line  to  be 
traced  back  to  Jewish  ancestors.^  Of  course 
such  conversational  statements  must  not  be 
taken  literally.  Many  years  ago  I  met  a  Kns- 
sian  scholar,  deeply  read  in  literature  and 
science — the  pure  Russian,  without  any  asso- 
ciations with  Jews — who  told  me  that  he  was 
engaged  upon  a  work  which  set  itself  the  task 
of  tracing  the  origin  of  most  of  the  great  men 
in  science  and  letters  that  were  then  living  in 
Germany ;  and  that  he  was  coming  to  the  con- 

*  So,  for  instance,  he  believed,  and  he  must  have  had  good 
grounds  for  his  belief,  that  the  families  of  the  Cecils  and  the 
Russells  were  originally  Jewish. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     101 

elusion  that,  not  only  were  a  great  many  of 
them  actually  Jews,  but  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  best  known  among  the  Christian 
dignitaries  had  also  some  admixture  of  Jewish 
blood. 

If  we  look  about  us  in  modern  history  from 
the  Middle  Ages  on,  and  realize  the  vast  num- 
ber of  Jews,  or  those  who  were  Jews  but  one 
generation  back,  who  were  to  be  found  in  ex- 
alted positions,  from  popes  and  archbishops  to 
kings  and  queens,  through  statesmen  and  am- 
bassadors, great  financiers,  men  of  science  and 
letters,  artists  and  scholars,  our  first  astonish- 
ment at  such  statements  as  those  I  have  just 
quoted  will  be  considerably  diminished.  Our 
estimate  of  the  social  position  and  qualifica- 
tions of  the  Jews  will  become  essentially  mod- 
ified. We  shall  perhaps  even  be  able  to  sym- 
pathize with  the  racial  self-confidence  of  Dis- 
raeli as  flaunted  before  the  snub-nosed  Saxon. 
At  all  events,  we  shall  not  be  able  any  longer 
to  maintain  the  ignorant  position  with  regard 
to  the  social  qualifications  of  these  people  held 
by  those  who  only  know  of  either  the  Bibli- 
cal Jew  or  the  Old-clothes  Jew,  who  may,  when 
hard  pressed,  grant  to  these  people  the  posses- 
sion of  certain  moral  qualities,  but  never  dream 


102  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

of  taking  tliem  into  consideration  in  questions 
of  claims  to  social  distinction. 

Yet  I  venture  to  maintain,  that  if  within 
the  next  century  feelings  of  social  considera- 
tion based  upon  ancestry  still  exist,  whosoever 
can  then  point  to  pure  Jewish  ancestry  will 
find  a  source  whence  flow  social  advantages  as 
great  as  now  fall  to  those  who  can  trace  their 
lineage  back  to  the  Crusaders ;  for  they  will 
then  be  immediately  connected  with  a  group 
of  people  whose  high  merits  in  the  present 
and  great  distinction  in  the  past  will  be  uni- 
versally admitted. 

To  support  this  bold  and  perhaps  startling 
proposition  we  must  first  examine  into  the 
nature  of  the  causes  which  in  general  lead  to 
social  distinction,  and  then  see  how  they  apply 
to  the  Jews. 

In  stating  causes  which  underlie  social  evo- 
lution we  cannot  hope  to  be  exhaustive,  and 
must  before  all  limit  our  scope.  Some  must 
be  excluded  because  they  are  too  restricted  in 
their  influence  ;  others  because  they  are  too 
wide  in  the  ramification  of  the  subject.  So, 
for  instance,  I  should  exclude  organized  and 
stereotyped  aristocracies  where  certain  func- 
tions in  the  State — for  instance  a  seat  in  the 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     103 

House  of  Lords — give  a  fixed  and  tangible 
centre  of  social  influence.  Yet  in  England  the 
peerage  has  ever  been  fluctuating  ;  it  has  thus 
remained  in  touch  with  the  other  spheres  of 
social  life,  and  is  in  so  far  subject  to  the  nat- 
ural causes  which  govern  this  general  life  in 
its  social  evolution.  I  should  also  exclude 
from  this  inquiry  the  earliest  prehistoric  pe- 
riods in  the  history  of  human  society,  when 
mythical  connection  was  sought  for  in  the  an- 
cestry of  those  who  claimed  social  distinction. 
Such  inquiry  would  lead  us  too  far  into  a  field 
at  present  rife  with  numerous,  even  divergent, 
hypotheses.  It  is  best  to  turn  our  eyes  first 
upon  the  simpler  communities  whose  life  we 
have  before  us  within  reach,  and  then  upon 
the  more  complex  life  of  larger  communities, 
where,  however,  these  causes  become  readily 
manifest  in  their  comparatively  simple  activ-- 
ity.  We  then  find  that  one  of  the  simplest 
and  most  universal  causes  for  social  distinction 
lies  in  the  fact  of  being  universally  known  or 
known  to  a  great  many.  And  this  simple 
cause  has  been  most  persistently  active  in  this 
direction  from  the  earliest  time  to  our  own 
day,  in  the  most  remote  savage  community  as 
in  the  modern  city  of  London.     Negatively, 


104  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

we  find  him  despised  who  is  not  known,  who 
is  ^'a  nobody,  a  foreigner."  The  terms  noble 
(nobilis),  ignoble  (ignobilis)  are  immediately 
connected  with  the  Greek  verb  "  to  know," 
and  point  to  this  fact  of  being  known  or  un- 
known. This  fact,  in  connection  with  others 
(domestic  complications  and  unfavorable  con- 
ditions of  education),  has  had  much  to  do  with 
the  disadvantages  under  which  the  bastard  la- 
bored. He  was  a  man  in  whose  existence  im- 
portant facts  were  not  known.  The  more 
complete  this  knowledge  concerning  the  life 
of  each  individual,  the  further  back  in  his  own 
history  and  antecedents  one  could  go,  the 
greater  were  the  possibilities  with  regard  to 
social  recognition.  And  out  of  this  sprang 
the  idea  associated  with  the  phrase  pure  blood 
or  thorough-bred,  which  developed  into  the 
idea  of  the  ruling  classes.  In  more  complex 
developments  this  continuity  is  not  taken  lit- 
erally. It  often  suffices  to  point  to  such  fa- 
vorable conditions  in  the  past,  though  they 
may  have  been  interrupted.  This,  for  instance, 
w^ould  be  the  case  with  the  French  emigres 
after  the  Kevolution,  or  the  Huguenots,  etc. 

Besides  this  factor  of  pure  blood  in  simpler 
communities,  one  cause  for  social  distinction 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     105 

appears  to  be  length  of  settlement  in  the 
country.  This  is  especially  noticeable  in  the 
younger  and  colonial  settlements  that  are  now 
growing  up,  though  it  is  not  unknown  in 
many  of  the  oldest  communities,  especially 
when  they  are  on  a  small  scale.  There  are 
many  deeper  reasons  for  this.  So,  for  in- 
stance, there  is  a  certain  prescribed  right  to 
the  soil  and  connection  with  it  to  be  derived 
from  the  length  of  settlement  upon  it,  and 
every  new-comer  is  in  so  far  an  intruder. 
Then,  again,  length  of  settlement  is  condu- 
cive to  the  complete  knowledge  of  the  people 
thus  settled,  which  we  have  just  seen  is  one 
of  these  social  qualifications.  And,  finally, 
in  a  more  complex  form,  the  earliest  settlers 
readily  develop  into  a  compact  set,  into  which 
each  new-comer  must  singly  work  his  way, 
and  the  older  compact  body  will  thus  be  con- 
scious of  and  assert  its  power. 

This  claim  of  length  of  settlement  becomes 
still  stronger  when  coupled  with  wealth  and 
ease,  wdiich,  while  freeing  the  individual  from 
occupations  which  are  considered  debasing  or 
unfavorable  to  social  education,  give  him  the 
opportunity  of  choosing  such  vocations  w^hich 
in  themselves  command  recognition  and  con- 


106  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

sideration.  Here  we  are  in  danger  of  being 
tempted  into  deeper  moral  and  intellectual 
analysis  than  this  study  of  the  surface-life  of 
communities  demands.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that 
wealth  and  ease,  together  with  length  of  set- 
tlement, are  most  likely  in  themselves  to  con- 
fer social  distinction,  independently  of  the 
individual  character  and  attainment  of  excep- 
tional men  who  do  not  depend  upon  general 
influences. 

When  society  becomes  more  developed  in 
larger  communities — in  towns,  and  in  the  me- 
tropolis, with  complex  organization — there  is  a 
tendency  to  specialize  the  various  departments 
of  life,  and  to  dissociate  them  from  one  an- 
other, so  that  we  then  have  a  definitely  organ- 
ized "social"  life.  There  are  set  at  work  the 
factors  which  lead  to  a  social  selection,  which 
may  be  a  form  of  natural  selection  or  of  very 
unnatural  selection.  The  social  birds  of  a 
feather  will  then  fiock  together  and  will  form 
sets.  But  within  these  different  sets,  again, 
there  will  be  some  who  more  or  less  directly 
and  specially  flock  together  because  of  social 
qualities  which  will  be  recognized  by  most  if 
not  all  sets.  These  conditions  will  be  outer 
qualities  or  inner  qualities.     The  outer  quali- 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     107 

ties  will  again  be  found  in  wealth,  which  gives 
the  power  of  entertaining  and  leisure  for  de- 
veloping and  utilizing  this  power,  or  occupa- 
tions which  many  have  in  common,  and  which 
exclude  the  rivalry  and  competition  which  is 
self-centred  and,  in  so  far,  unsocial.  Leisure 
occupations,  such  as  sport  of  all  kind,  are  in 
themselves  social,  inasmuch  as  they  depend 
upon  a  number  of  people  acting  together,  and 
also  in  that  they  bring  people  of  such  similar 
tastes  together. 

The  inner  conditions  are  often  similar  relio:- 
ious  beliefs  and  intellectual  pursuits  which 
tend  to  give  this  sense  of  social  comradeship. 
But  it  will  readily  be  seen  that  in  this  more 
complex  organization  and  the  action  of  such 
social  selection  we  have  a  fluctuating  quantity, 
varying  with  the  duration  of  such  a  definite 
set,  and  with  the  estimation  in  which  certain 
tastes  or  pursuits  are  at  any  time  held. 

A  curious  fact  in  the  working  of  these  so- 
cial forces  is  the  repugnance  which  is  felt  for 
the  parvenu  and  the  pusher,  and  the  tendency 
towards  what  may  be  called  meritless  distinc- 
tion. We  may  be  fast  working  out  of  this, 
but  it  certainly  does  at  present  remain  active 
to  a  certain  degree.     There  is  an  opposition 


108  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

to  him  who  manifestly  craves  for  social  ad- 
mission and  evidently  strives  for  it.  The  re- 
sult is  that  it  is  considered  desirable  that  the 
social  distinction  should  be  of  earlier  date  than 
the  life  of  the  aspirant,  not  so  much  on  ac- 
count of  the  age,  as  that  it  must  not  be  the 
result  of  his  own  effort.  There  is  at  bottom 
some  right  instinct  to  this  apparently  immoral 
condition,  inasmuch  as  the  nature  of  purely 
social  intercourse  is  playful,  neither  moral  nor 
intellectual,  but  artistic.  Whenever  we  are  to 
appeal  to  the  social  instinct  through  the  moral 
or  intellectual  channels,  we  are  at  once  put 
into  the  mood  of  serious  thought  and  not  of 
social  play.  There  is  also  at  bottom  a  right 
instinct,  probably  based  upon  the  experience 
of  impersonal  society,  in  the  opposition  to 
those  who  have  immediately  acquired  wealth 
or  position  by  means  of  their  own  effort,  inas- 
much as  they  have  often  been  so  much  en- 
grossed in  the  struggle  that  it  has  led  to  a  neg- 
lect of  the  lighter  social  faculties.  So  much 
is  riglit  in  the  tendency  towards  meritless  dis- 
tinction. But  of  course  there  are  so  many 
other  elements  connected  with  moral  and  in- 
tellectual life  which  are  here  left  out  of  sight 
that  the  whole  will  not  bear  close  scrutiny. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     109 

What  we  may  select  as  the  broader  and  last- 
ing elements  which  have  qualified  socially,  and 
will  do  so  to  a  lesser  or  greater  degree  in  the 
future,  are,  first,  the  element  of  pure  blood ; 
second,  the  length  of  settlement ;  and  third, 
the  essential  and  most  important  of  all,  the 
position  in  life  which  raised  the  member  into 
the  spheres  which  qualify  socially — either  a 
position  of  eminence  in  the  commonwealth, 
or  one  which  in  itself  gives  the  opportunities 
for  refined  tastes,  or  the  intellectual  and  moral 
superiority  which  are  most  likely  to  lead  to  all 
these  qualities. 

Now  I  maintain  that  the  Jews,  as  a  people 
and  as  individuals,  have  possessed  these  to  the 
very  highest  degree,  and  it  is  from  this  point 
of  view  I  wish  to  examine  their  history. 

Leaving  aside  the  persecutions  which  came 
periodically  over  Europe  like  diseases,  I  main- 
tain that  the  lowering  of  the  social  position 
of  the  Jews  as  a  body  dates  from  the  general 
emancipation  of  European  peoples,  especially 
since  the  French  Revolution.  In  the  Middle 
Ages  they  were  a  more  separate  body,  with 
its  own  autonomy  and  jurisdiction,  and  its 
own  social  standards,  generally  based  upon 
high  intellectual  and  moral  attainments.     In 


110  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION" 

many  places  where  there  was  no  pronounced 
class  of  burghers,  they  supplied  this  class — 
separated  on  the  one  hand  from  the  nobles,  on 
the  other  from  the  serfs.  They  were  certainly 
nearer  to,  and  better  understood  and  valued 
by,  the  nobles  than  by  the  serfs.  K"ot  being 
either  nobles  or  of  the  clerical  or  serf  class, 
there  was  no  standard  by  which  to  judge 
them  socially;  they  were  simply  themselves, 
and  maintained  their  inner  superiority,  to- 
gether with  the  consideration  of  the  superior 
classes,  with  whom  they  were  not  infrequently 
allied  by  marriage  and  conversion. 

All  through  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  Ke- 
naissance  their  general  social  position  was  ei- 
ther very  high  or  it  was  distinctly  itself,  not 
to  be  classed  definitely  by  comparison  with 
the  outer  world,  dependent  upon  their  own 
outer  and  inner  standards. 

But  when  this  separateness  was  broken  up, 
and  the  lower  orders  were  more  and  more 
emancipated,  the  Jews  lost  this  inner  standard 
of  their  own,  while  the  former  serfs  or  poor 
burghers  looked  upon  them  as  their  equals, 
and  attempted  in  every  way  to  make  them 
their  social  inferiors. 

Being  in  the  majority,  these  lower  orders. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     111 

of  course,  often  carried  the  point  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world  ;  and  the  Jews  themselves,  losing 
the  intellectual  vigor  of  their  own  inner  or- 
ganization, began  to  degenerate ;  though  they 
have,  even  as  a  body,  ever  maintained  a  moral 
and  intellectual  superiority  as  compared  with 
the  classes  among  whom  they  would  roughly 
be  grouped  now. 

As  to  purity  of  blood,  in  whatever  sense 
this  may  be  taken,  there  is  no  European  race 
or  section  of  one  that  can  vie  with  them. 

I  have  urged  above  that,  for  any  practical 
purpose,  for  purposes  of  practical  politics  (to 
cause  a  pro-Semitic  or  an  anti-Semitic  move- 
ment), we  cannot  now  speak  of  unity  of  race, 
especially  when  we  consider  the  many  centu- 
ries during  which  different  portions  of  the 
race  have  dwelt  continuously  in  various  coun- 
tries, if  not  in  different  sections  of  the  globe. 
We  must  also  consider  the  vicissitudes  of  life 
in  the  many  unsettled  periods  through  which 
any  race  must  have  passed  during  the  barbar- 
ous ages.  Even  in  the  third  century  a  charac- 
teristic answer  was  given  to  the  famous  Rabbi 
Juda,  called  forth  by  his  racial  pride.  Juda 
Bar  Jecheskel,  chief  of  the  Babylonian  com- 
munity,, was  born  a.d.  225,  and  died  a.d.  299. 


112  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Jiida  was  so  particular  of  the  purity  of  Jewish 
blood  that  he  kept  his  son  Isaac  unmarried 
long  beyond  the  customary  age,  because  he 
was  not  satisfied  with  the  pedigrees  of  the 
families  from  which  he  was  to  choose  a  wife 
for  him.  TJila,  one  of  those  learned  in  the  law, 
remarked  to  him :  "  Can  we  be  quite  certain 
that  we  are  not  descended  from  some  of  the 
pagans  who,  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
ravished  the  maidens  in  Zion?""^ 

With  these  restrictions,  in  the  light  of  the 
less  important  social  considerations,  the  fact 
remains  that  they  are  the  purest  race.  Wheth- 
er Weissman  is  right  or  not  in  his  limitations 
to  the  generally  current  views  of  evolution 
and  heredity,  whether  acquired  habits  and 
those  outer  conditions  pressing  upon  individual 
life  aflfect  the  organism  so  that  it  immediately 
transmits  these  adaptations  to  its  progeny  or 

*  In  mitigation  of  Juda's  pride  another  story  concerning 
him,  told  by  Graetz,  must  be  remembered  as  showing  his 
strong  sense  of  justice,  which  in  a  wholesome  manner  coun- 
teracted and  purified  the  aristocratic  nature  of  these  com- 
munities. He  laid  a  ban  upon  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
college  of  rabbis  because  of  his  doubtful  morality.  When 
he  visited  him  on  his  death-bed,  he  said  frankly  to  him,  "  I 
am  proud  that  no  impulse  of  partiality  led  me  to  spare  even 
a  man  of  your  blood  and  position." 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODEEN  TIMES     113 

not,  the  fact  remains  that  the  physical  and 
moral  qualities  which  have  caused  this  race 
to  survive  must  point  to  a  process  of  natu- 
ral selection  which,  in  the  animal  world,  we 
should  certainly  characterize  by  the  term  "a 
thorough-bred."  And  however  these  wider 
theories  of  natural  laws  affect  social  life,  I 
firmly  hold  that  such  enduring  broad  qualities 
of  a  race  will,  other  things  being  equal,  lead 
its  individual  members  to  the  foreground 
under  any  conditions  of  life,  be  they  physical, 
moral,  intellectual,  or  social.  At  all  events, 
the  fact  remains  that,  from  the  superficial 
social  point  of  view,  so  far  as  "purity  of 
blood  "  may  be  claimed  as  one  of  the  condi- 
tions of  social  distinction,  the  Jews  have  this 
claim  above  all  other  people  of  European  de- 
scent. But  it  may  be  urged  that  the  idea  of 
"  purity  of  blood  "  implies  the  inheritance  of 
those  conditions  of  living  which  produce  re- 
fined life  with  refined  tastes.  Grave  doubts 
may  then  be  entertained  w^hether  such  condi- 
tions are  actually  transmitted  by  individual 
inheritance ;  or  whether  it  is  not  merely  the 
transmission  of  a  general  tradition.  But  I 
shall  show  that  those  conditions  of  refined  life 
have   existed   for   a  longer   time,  and   more 


114  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

continuously,  with  the  Jews  than  with  any 
other  people. 

Now  as  to  antiquity  of  settlement.  If  we 
consider  the  constant  changes  in  the  ethnolog- 
ical geography  of  Europe  after  the  downfall 
of  classical  Home  (nay,  even  prior  to  it),  the 
nomadic  character  of  the  migration  of  the 
races  sweeping  from  east  to  west,  from  north 
to  south,  we  may  certainly  count  the  Jews  as 
among  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  Europe. 

To  leave  aside  the  question  of  classical  and 
biblical  periods  ( where  much  can  be  said  for 
them  as  colonists  in  Europe),  they  certainly 
were  numerously  settled  in  Italy  even  in  the 
times  of  the  Kepublic  and  during  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  have  been  there  continuously 
down  to  our  day,  in  spite  of  the  numerous 
persecutions  and  expulsions.  After  the  dis- 
ruption of  the  Roman  Empire  there  certainly 
was  a  Jewish  community  at  Ravenna  in  the 
sixth  century.  In  the  south  there  were  large 
numbers  at  Naples,  at  Yenusium  (the  birth- 
place of  Horace),  at  Palermo,  Messina,  and 
Agrigentum.  Under  Theoderic,  himself  an 
Arian,  their  position  was  a  favorable  one  ; 
there  were  synagogues  and  communities  at 
Milan,  Genoa,  and  most  of  the  north  Italian 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     115 

cities,  and  at  Koine  Theodoric  defended  tlieni 
against  the  attacks  of  the  catholic  Christians. 
They  proved  their  loyalty  to  their  Gothic 
friends  by  supporting  his  successor  Theodat, 
and  fighting  (desperately  for  him  at  the  siege 
of  Naples,  when  they  were  the  last  to  be 
overcome  by  Belisarius.  Their  free  position 
continued  under  the  Lombards,  while  even 
Gregory  L,  in  spite  of  his  keen  desire  to  see 
them  converted,  did  not  allow  his  zeal  to  take 
an  aggressive  form.  Since  then  there  have 
always  been  Jews  in  Italy. 

They  were  still  more  firmly  rooted  in  France 
and  Spain.  In  the  west  of  Europe  the  Catholic 
Church  advanced  but  slowly,  and  it  took  a  long 
time  for  it  to  grow  to  such  power  as  to  hurl 
it  against  the  Jews.  They  thus  held  impor> 
tant  positions  in  these  countries  from  the  earli- 
est times  down  to  the  advanced  Middle  Ages. 

The  emigration  of  the  Jews  into  these  coun- 
tries goes  back  to  the  time  of  the  Eoman  Ee- 
public  and  Csesar.  They  were  either  led  there 
as  merchants  or  sent  there  as  prisoners,  but  in 
either  case  they  enjoyed  full  citizenship.  The 
conquering  Franks  or  Burgundians  looked 
upon  them  as  Komans.  The  earliest  Frankish 
laws    make    no    special    distinction    between 


116  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION^ 

them.  Under  Chlovis  they  lived  in  Auvergne 
(Avverna),  Carcasonne,  Orleans,  Paris,  and  in 
Belgium.  They  were  so  numerous  in  the  an- 
cient Greek  port  of  Massilia  (Marseilles)  that 
this  city  was  called  ''  the  Hebrew  City  ;"  they 
were  also  numerous  at  Aries,  in  both  of  which 
places  they  used  the  Greek  language.  Near 
Narbonne  a  mountain  was  called  mo?is  Judai- 
Gus.  These  Frankish  or  Biirgundian  Jews 
were  engaged  in  agriculture,  trade,  and  com- 
merce, and  were  in  intimate  intercourse  with 
their  fellow  inhabitants,  from  the  princes  to 
the  common  people ;  they  often  married  Chris- 
tian wives,  and  stood  in  friendly  relation  to 
the  Christian  priests,  notably  Bishop  Hilarius 
of  Aries  (who  maintained  a  somewhat  inde- 
pendent position  towards  Eome).  At  his  death 
they  were  as  distressed  as  those  of  his  own 
Christian  flock,  and  at  his  funeral  they  wept 
and  mingled  their  Hebrew  dirges  with  the  lit- 
anies of  the  Church.  Jews  and  Christians 
met  at  feasts  and  meals,  so  much  so  that  the 
Council  of  Yannes  (a.d.  465)  decreed  that  it 
was  not  lawful  for  priests  to  take  part  in  Jew- 
ish meals,  "  for  it  was  not  dignified  that  while 
the  Christians  partook  of  the  meals  of  the 
Jews,  the  Jews  spurned  the  food  of  the  Chris- 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     117 

tians,  and  so  gave  the  appearance  as  if  the 
priests  were  lower  in  standing  than  the  Jews." 
Though  under  Chlovis  this  relation  remained 
unaltered,  the  Burgundians  were  more  eager 
in  matters  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  from 
Sigismund  on  (a.d.  516)  attempts  were  made 
to  forbid  this  free  intercourse. 

This  also  reacted  upon  the  Franks,  though 
even  here  the  decentralization  of  the  rule 
caused  it  to  affect  only  single  districts,  so  that 
secular  and  clerical  princes  still  lived  in  friend- 
ly converse  with  them.  But  the  centre  of  ill 
feeling  against  the  Jews  emanated  from  the 
Bishop  of  Arverna  (Avitus),  who  lived  at  Cler- 
mont. In  this  city  the  Jews  were  persecuted 
in  A.D.  576,  and  then  fled  to  Marseilles.  From 
this  moment  the  movement  against  them  in- 
creased, but  slackened  again  under  Pipin  and 
his  successors.  We  shall  meet  with  the  high- 
er and  firmer  position  they  acquired  under 
Charlemagne  in  dealing  with  their  social  char- 
acter ;  but  it  will  suffice  for  us  to  realize  that, 
despite  the  persecution  in  France,  they  have 
been  residents  there  from  the  earliest  times. 
Especially  in  the  south  and  at  Bordeaux  they 
have  been  continuous  settlers,  not  unfrequent- 
ly  of  great  distinction  and  of  high  position. 


118  THE   JEWISH    QUESTIOIS" 

In  Germany  they  have  been  settled  since 
the  remotest  antiquity — I  venture  to  say  as 
long  as  any  class  or  race  of  people  whom  we 
can  now  identify,  and  much  longer  than  most. 
They  are  in  this  sense,  and  from  this  point  of 
view,  much  more  Germanic  than  most  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Prussia  and  of  the  Slav  districts 
of  modern  Germany. 

An  old  chronicle  considers  the  Jews  settled 
on  the  Eliine  as  being  the  descendants  of  the 
legions  which  had  taken  part  in  the  burning 
of  the  Temple.  He  maintains  that  the  Van- 
gioni  had  chosen  beautiful  wives  out  of  the 
numerous  Jewish  prisoners,  and  had  taken 
them  with  them  to  their  homes  on  the  banks  of 
the  Ehine  and  the  Main.  The  children  born 
of  Germanic  fathers  and  Jewish  mothers  were 
educated  by  their  mothers  in  the  Jewish  faith, 
as  the  fathers  did  not  look  after  them.  Now 
these  children  of  mixed  race  are  supposed  to 
be  the  founders  of  the  Jewish  communities 
between  Mayence  and  Worms.  It  is  histori- 
cally certain  that  in  the  Roman  colony  of  Co- 
logne there  was  a  Jewish  community  before 
Christianity  had  come  to  power  under  Con- 
stantine.  The  leaders  of  these  congregations 
and  distinguished  members  had  conferred  upon 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     119 

them  by  the  pre-Christian  emperors  the  privi- 
lege of  exclusion  from  the  burdensome  civic 
ofHces.  Constantino  rescinded  this  privilege, 
and  only  reserved  it  for  two  or  tliree  families. 
The  Jews  of  Cologne  also  had  the  privilege  of 
separate  jurisdiction,  which  they  retained  far 
into  the  Middle  Ages.  A  non-Jewish  plaintiff, 
even  a  priest,  had  to  bring  his  suit  against  a 
Jew  before  the  Jewish  judge  (Jew -bishop). 
Since  those  days  the  Jew^s  have  ever  been  set- 
tled in  Germany;  and  though,  during  barbar- 
ous periods  of  persecution,  they  may  have 
been  forced  to  exchange  temporarily  one  dis- 
trict of  this  country  for  another,  the  numerous 
principalities  into  whicli  Germany  was  divided 
enabled  them  to  remain  in  Germany  proper. 
These  changes  of  domicile,  moreover,  did  not 
make  their  stay  in  Germany  as  a  whole,  or  on 
their  part  as  a  race,  any  the  less  fixed  than  did 
the  wanderings  of  other  constituent  elements  of 
Germany's  population — from  tlie  great  preme- 
diseval  migrations,  througli  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  and  the  wars  of  more  modern  history — 
make  theirs  illusory.  At  all  events,  w^e  are 
justiiied  in  maintaining  that  the  Jews  have 
become  an  integral  part  of  the  German  peo- 
ple as  they  now  exist ;  that  they  have  contrib- 


120  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

uted  more  than  their  share  (taken  in  numerical 
proportion)  to  the  establishment  of  what  we 
consider  best  in  German  spirit  and  culture ; 
and  that  their  social  rights,  on  the  ground  of 
length  of  domicile,  are  beyond  all  contention. 
In  Spain  the  Jews  were  certainly  among 
the  earliest  settlers.  Their  immigration  goes 
back  to  the  nebulous  period  of  prehistoric 
times — at  least  for  some  districts.  They  cer- 
tainly were  there  as  freemen  during  the  age 
of  the  Eoman  Republic.  And  in  Paul's  time 
there  was  an  enormous  Jewish  population — 
so  large  that,  according  to  Church  historians, 
their  presence  there  appears  to  have  been  the 
cause  of  his  visit  to  Hesperia.  Strabo  tells  us 
that  they  had  become  so  thoroughly  Latinized 
that  in  some  districts  they  had  forgotten  their 
own  language  and  only  spoke  Latin.  The 
canons  of  the  Synods  of  Elvira  and  Toledo 
refer  to  the  fact  that  they  had  come  to  Spain 
before  the  Christians,  and  possessed  greater 
w^ealth  and  power  than  them.  Their  numbers 
may  be  estimated  from  the  fact  that  Granada 
formerly  was  called  the  "Jews'  City,"  because 
it  was  almost  entirely  inhabited  by  Jews ;  so 
also  Tarragona.  In  Cordova  there  was  a  gate 
called  the  Jews'  Gate,  and  a  fortress  at  Sara- 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     121 

gossa  was  called  by  the  Arabs  Euta  al  Jalmd. 
It  is  likely,  from  the  discovery  of  a  sepulchral 
slab  to  a  Jewess  (whose  names  were  Belliosa 
and  Miriam),  which  is  written  in  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  Latin,  that  these  Jews  originally 
came  from  Greek-speaking  countries.  Though 
under  the  Goths,  and  later  through  the  Inqui- 
sition, they  suffered  the  most  cruel  persecu- 
tion, their  social  standing,  as  I  shall  have  oc- 
casion to  show,  was  of  the  highest  until  their 
expulsion  in  the  fifteenth  ,centmy.  Among 
themselves  they  formed  a  highly  cultured  and 
brilliant  society,  far  above  that  of  the  upper 
classes  of  the  rest  of  Europe,  and  through  in- 
termarriage and  by  tlie  forcible  conversion  of 
many  of  their  members  they  were  related  to 
the  great  houses  of  Spain ;  so  that  it  is  main- 
tained by  some  that  many  of  the  prominent 
*' grandees"  of  Spain  are  of  Jewish  blood. 

After  their  expulsion  from  Spain  and  Port- 
ugal many  of  these  Jews  settled  in  Holland 
and  England,  in  both  of  which  countries  there 
had  been  Jewish  inhabitants  long  before. 
Though  in  Holland  there  had  already  been  a 
number  of  Jews,  after  the  Spanish  Inquisition 
many  Marranos  or  Nuevos  Cristianos  (those 
forcibly  converted  to  Christianity,  but  at  heart 


122  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Jews)  settled  tliere,  the  movement  beginning 
with  the  romantic  immigration  of  Maria  ISTunes 
and  her  party.  The  idea  of  seeking  refuge  in 
Holland  seems  to  have  originated  in  a  brave 
woman,  a  Neo-Christian.  She,  as  well  as  her 
husband,  Gaspar  Lopes  Homem,  and  their  chil- 
dren, were  Jews  at  heart,  though  they  belonged 
to  the  converted  families,  and  they  desired  to 
return  to  Judaism.  When  a  ship  under  Jacob 
Tirado  secretly  left  Portugal,  she  sent  her  son 
and  her  daughter,  Maria  Nunes,  famous  for 
her  beauty,  with  him.  An  English  frigate 
captured  the  Portuguese  vessel.  The  com- 
mander of  this  vessel,  an  English  duke,  was 
so  much  attracted  by  Maria  ISTunes  that  he  of- 
fered her  marriage,  which  she  refused.  When 
the  captives  were  led  to  London  the  beauty 
of  Maria  caused  such  sensation  that  Queen 
Elizabeth  was  anxious  to  make  the  acquaint- 
ance of  the  girl  who  had  refused  a  duke. 
She  invited  her  to  an  audience,  and  drove 
through  the  streets  of  London  with  her. 
Probably  through  her  influence  these  captive 
Marranos  were  enabled  to  leave  England  and 
to  continue  their  voyage  to  Holland.  Men 
like  Tirado  himself — Samuel  Pollache,  Jakob 
Israel  Belmonte  (a  Jewish  poet,  author  of  the 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     123 

epic  "  Job  "),  Alonso  de  Ilerrera  (descendant 
of  Gonsalos  de  Cordova,  the  conqueror  of  l^a- 
ples) — were  the  chief  members  of  these  settle- 
ments. 

In  England,  as  well  as  in  the  French  pos- 
sessions of  England  under  Henry  II.,  large 
numbers  of  Jews  lived.  They  were  so  wealthy 
that  their  houses  were  like  palaces.  Many 
Englishmen  were  so  partial  to  the  Jewish 
faith  that  they  joined  the  Jewish  communi- 
ties. There  was  one  such  community  existing, 
exclusively  of  converts  to  Judaism.  Many  of 
the  great  families  of  England  from  that  time 
and  in  later  ages  are  thus  connected  with  the 
Jewish  people.  But,  beginning  w^ith  the 
massacre  at  the  coronation  of  Eichard  Coeur 
de  Lion,  and  culminating  in  the  cruel  assassi- 
nation of  the  rich  Jews  of  York,  Lynn,  TTor- 
wich.  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  the  persecutions  be- 
came such,  fanned  by  the  fanaticism  of  the 
priests,  that  they  were  driven  out  of  England 
for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  only  re- 
turned again  in  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was 
then,  owing  to  the  favorable  disposition  of 
Cromwell  and  the  Roundheads  to  the  Jews, 
that  the  exertions  of  Manasse  Ben  Israel  found 
ready  response.     But  it  was  not  until  the  ac- 


Of    Tifr: 


124  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

cession  of  Charles  II.  that  they  resettled  in 
England  in  larger  numbers.  Since  then  they 
have  lived  in  England  undisturbed  without 
any  repression  to  the  present  day. 

The  Spanish  Inquisition  also  led  large  num- 
bers to  the  West  Indies,  Brazil,  South  America 
in  general,  and  to  North  America.  It  is  now 
maintained  on  good  authority  that  they  were 
directly  concerned  in  the  expedition  of  Co- 
lumbus. Jews  certainly  settled  in  New  York 
as  early  as  1654,  and  they  were  among  the  first 
settlers  of  Newport,  Charleston,  Savannah,  Bal- 
timore, and  other  cities  of  the  United  States, 
who  brought  the  great  interoceanic  commerce 
to  these  places. 

To  turn  now  to  the  refinement  of  life  and 
thought  which  are  conducive  to  higher  social 
qualifications,  I  would  compare  the  Jewish 
people  as  a  whole,  including  the  lowest  classes, 
with  those  of  other  nationalities  and  character. 

It  must,  for  instance,  have  struck  an  observ- 
er of  English  life  how  readily  a  person  of 
Jewish  extraction,  rising  from  humble  to 
brilliant  conditions  of  life,  adapted  himself  to 
the  manners  and  customs  of  those  with  whom 
he  lived,  and  was  felt  by  his  associates  to  be 
at  one  with  them  in  tastes  and  habits.     And 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     125 

this  peculiarity  is  the  more  markedly  notice- 
able when  such  a  person  is  compared  with 
one  who  has  risen  from  humbler  conditions 
of  what  might  be  called  '^dissenting"  ante- 
cedents some  fifty  years  ago.  The  chief  rea- 
son for  this  is,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  the  life  of  a  Jew  as  such,  to 
whatever  class  he  belonged  or  in  whatever 
country  he  lived,  or,  finally,  in  whatever  period 
of  the  history  of  this  people,  was  never  devoid 
of  elements  of  refinement  which  are  essential 
to  Judaism  itself. 

I  maintain  that  coarse  and  brutal  plebeian- 
ism,  without  the  elevation  of  spiritual  refine- 
ment, is  impossible  to  those  who  are  truly 
Jews.  As  such  national  and  essential  elements 
which  counteract  brutalization  and  coarsening, 
I  would  first  enumerate  the  inner  family  life 
of  the  Jews,  fixed  by  the  laws  of  the  Deca- 
logue, fostered  by  all  religious  traditions,  and 
intensified  by  their  long  martyrdom  and  the 
adversity  and  cruelty  they  have  met  with  for 
so  many  centuries  in  their  outer  life.  It  is 
this  which,  together  with  other  elements  in 
their  inner  history,  has  counteracted  the  hard- 
ening and  embittering  and  lowering  tenden- 
cies of  the  dire  fate  which  cruelty  and  brutal 


126  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

ignorance  have  for  so  long  forced  upon  tliem. 
The  degradation  of  the  soul  can  never  work 
its  downward  course  where  the  elevation  of 
religious  faith  and  its  spiritual  surroundings 
are  made  physically  potent  by  the  daily  appeal 
to  the  best  feelings  of  love  and  self-sacrifice 
urging  on  to  definite  action  in  the  home. 
The  Germans  have  two  almost  untranslatable 
words :  Gemuihsleben  and  Gemuthsbildung^ 
the  life  of  the  heart  and  the  education  of  the 
heart.  The  intellectual  education  of  the 
school  and  the  training  of  character  in  the  life 
of  the  outer  world  cannot  readily  develop  this 
more  emotional  side  of  tlie  soul :  the  appeal 
to  the  affections  and  to  the  faculty  of  sympa- 
thy, the  subduing,  controlling,  and  refining  of 
passion — all  these,  are  the  corner-stone  to  the 
most  artistic  structure  of  the  soul's  life,  which 
forms  taste.  A  man  or  a  woman  with  a  wide 
scale  of  aflfections  and  with  all  -  penetrating 
sympathy  must,  in  some  form,  be  possessed 
of  tact,  and  cannot  do  what  is  absolutely  in 
bad  taste. 

The  most  abject  picture  of  unpoetic  occu- 
pation and  outer  life  in  a  Jewish  household  is 
always  relieved  and  redeemed  by  the  soften- 
ing light  of  their  family  and  home  existence. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     127 

George  Eliot  has  in  Daniel  Deronda  impressed 
this  fact  in  a  very  striking  manner  in  her  pict- 
ure of  the  family  Cohen,  with  their  concen- 
tration upon  the  meanest  life  of  gain,  only 
relieved  and  beautified  by  the  mellowness  of 
their  family  life.  Without  this,  the  lowering 
influence  of  such  occupation  would,  in  all  oth- 
er cases,  lead  to  the  meanest  degradation. 
Considering  that  in  some  countries,  and  in 
the  last  centuries,  the  Jews  have  often  been 
forced  into  the  occupations  most  trying  to  the 
maintenance  of  noble  character,  it  must  be 
considered  nothing  short  of  a  miracle  that 
they  have  retained  the  qualities  they  possess, 
if  it  were  not  for  these  refining  and  ennobling 
counteractants. 

Now,  this  family  life  and  its  influence  are 
not  dependent  upon  the  individual  nature  of 
one  family,  but  they  were  made  a  Jewish 
characteristic  by  the  nature  of  their  religious 
life  in  all  times.  In  spite  of  the  hieratic  con- 
stitution of  the  Jewish  polity  during  its  inde- 
pendence, the  Jewish  religion  has,  certainly  in 
later  times,  never  tended  towards  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  church  as  independent  from  the  fam- 
ily. And  this  tendency  has  manifested  itself, 
first,  in  that  the  rites  and  ceremonies  and  re- 


128  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

ligious  functions  were  not  relegated  to  the 
clergy  in  the  Church,  but  were  made  a  part 
of  the  family  life,  uniting  the  members  for 
this  purpose,  the  father  taking  the  position  of 
the  priest ;  and,  secondly,  in  that  religion  was 
not  merely  formalized  and  made  a  matter  re- 
ferring to  the  supranatural,  celestial  life  and 
world,  but  permeated  and  entered  into  the 
immediate  daily  life,  producing  the  Talmud 
and  all  its  literature. 

The  religious  functions  and  ceremonies  thus 
elevated  and  ennobled  the  family  life.  The 
miserable  second-hand  shop,  the  hovel  of  the 
peddler,  are  transformed  into  a  temple  for  the 
time  being,  of  which  the  type  is  the  great 
temple  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  the  warm  imagina- 
tion of  this  people,  developed  and  nurtured 
by  the  hardness  and  sordidness  of  the  life 
without,  invests  it  with  all  the  glories  of  its 
golden  prototype.  The  peddler,  who  during 
the  week  is  bowed  down  beneath  the  weight  of 
the  sack  he  carries  along  the  road,  the  vender 
and  buyer  of  old  clothes,  is  the  high-priest  of 
this  tabernacle  and  is  upraised  in  the  sense  of 
his  dignity.  On  the  Friday  evening,  under 
the  lighted  lamps  retaining  the  shape  of  the 
golden  lamps  of  Jerusalem,  the  children  bow 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     129 

down  before  their  father  or  grandfather  and 
receive  his  blessing;  the  evening  meal  is  a 
feast,  with  all  the  members  of  the  family 
united  in  their  festive  mood  —  spiritualized 
and  refined  for  the  time  being,  whatever  their 
occupations  during  the  week. 

As  the  home  is  elevated  by  this  fusion,  so 
religion  is  vitalized  by  it.  Every  Jew  is  ex- 
pected to  be  learned  in  the  law;  there  is  no 
monopoly  on  the  part  of  the  priests ;  he  is 
bound  to  know  it,  that  he  may  not  transgress. 
Thus  the  law  itself,  when  laid  down  in  the 
Talmud,  must  enter  into  all  phases  of  life,  and 
must  be  kept  alive  to  develop  and  to  embrace 
the  changes  of  all  new  conditions  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  must  take  immediate  cognizance  of 
daily  life  with  all  its  ramifications — the  house, 
the  market ;  the  duty  of  citizens,  of  husbands, 
of  wives,  of  mothers,  of  girls  and  boys ;  also 
the  duty  of  man  to  himself,  as  affecting  his 
self-respect,  his  habits  of  eating  and  drinking 
and  of  cleanliness — in  fact,  the  Talmud  enters 
as  nearly  as  possible  into  the  whole  of  life. 
And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  combina- 
tion of  religion  and  daily  life  has  had  its  ef- 
fect, not  only  in  maintaining  higher  morality 
among  the  Jews,  but  even  in  establishing  and 
9 


130  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

preserving  more  refined  habits.  They  cer- 
tainly were  among  the  first  people  in  Europe 
who  washed  regularly.  At  a  time  when  we 
know  the  arrangements  for  personal  cleanli- 
ness throughout  Europe  to  have  been  very 
imperfect  and  precarious,  it  is  interesting  to 
read  the  instructions  given  by  the  Spanish 
Inquisition  to  recognize  and  discover  a  secret 
Jew :  they  turn  chiefly  upon  his  habits  of  eat- 
ing and  drinking,  of  washing  before  his  meals, 
of  changing  his  linen  on  the  Sabbath-day. 

Of  course  the  danger  has  been  that,  whereas 
in  the  west  of  Europe  we  have  advanced  in 
our  habits  of  cleanliness  since  the  romantic 
Middle  Ages,  and  even  within  the  last  fifty 
years,  an  orthodox  Jew  who  only  adheres  to 
the  injunctions  of  his  ancient  law  might  now, 
by  comparison,  be  on  a  low  stage  of  cleanli- 
ness, and  that  the  growth  of  formalism  in 
their  religious  injunctions  may  not  have  been 
proof,  in  some  instances,  against  the  degrada- 
tion which  poverty  and  repression  brought 
upon  some  communities.  No  doubt  there  al- 
ways was  the  danger  of  stereotyping  customs 
into  arid  formalism,  where  the  religious  law, 
or  laws  which  partook  of  some  of  the  weight 
of  religious  life,  entered  into  all  the  nooks  and 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     131 

cranni'es  of  daily  life.  But  there  can  equally 
be  no  doubt  that  the  fusion  kept  religion  real- 
ly alive  among  them,  and  directly  contributed 
to  the  diffusion  of  culture  and  learning,  be- 
sides indirectly  refining  and  elevating  their 
tastes.  It  did  this  in  ever  being  a  source  of 
education  to  the  people  — education  of  the 
elementary  and  of  the  higher  intellectual  or- 
der. For  the  Jews  never  required  a  Reforma- 
tion or  the  invention  of  the  printing-press  to 
make  the  Bible  known  to  them.  Most  of  the 
Jews,  however  humble,  could  read  and  write 
Hebrew  at  least,  many  of  them  several  other 
languages.  Even  those  who  have  sunk  low- 
est in  Poland  and  the  south-east  of  Europe 
can  now  read  and  write  their  Hebrew  charac- 
ters, and  for  them  an  enormous  literature  with 
extensive  publishing  establishments  exists  for 
the  production  of  books  in  Hebrew  characters 
conveying  a  patois  of  German  and  Hebrew 
mixed."^  For  centuries,  w^hile  the  slender  stock 
of  learning  in  Europe  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  masses  of  the  people,  in  every 
walk  of  life,  were  quite  illiterate,  the  humblest 

*  Compare  the  statistics  given  by  Sclileiden  on  this  point 
in  the  next  chapter. 


132  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Jews  were  possessed  of  the  rudiments  of  edu- 
cation. 

But  this  educating  influence  of  their  nation- 
al and  religious  life  went  still  further  beyond 
the  elementary  stages,  in  that  in  every  small 
community,  even  in  villages,  the  men  and  boys 
would  meet  on  the  Saturday  afternoon  for  Tal- 
mudic  teaching,  learning,  and  disputation.  We 
need  not  dwell  upon  the  refining  influence  it 
must  have  had  upon  the  simplest  and  lowliest 
people,  to  be  thus  in  immediate  touch  with 
the  most  abstract  thought  of  a  philosophical 
nature,  dwelling  upon  life  actual  and  spiritual, 
and  all  in  a  most  acutely  developed  logical 
method,  which  has  had  much  to  do  with  the 
sharpening  of  their  intellect.  But  it  went 
much  deeper.  Their  rabbis  could  hardly  drop 
into  the  crass  ignorance  which  stamped  some 
of  the  clergy ;  they  were,  with  very  few  ex- 
ceptions, deeply  learned  in  Biblical  and  Tal- 
mudic  writings ;  while  many  young  laymen 
received  in  these  schools  a  training  in  philo- 
sophical thought  which  has  often  set  the  world 
wondering  when  they  have  once  manifested  it 
outside  the  Jewish  circles.  The  life  and  his- 
tory of  Spinoza,  Moses  Mendelssohn,  and  Sol- 
omon Maimon   are   striking  instances.     The 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     133 

latter  coming,  a  poor  beggarly  boy  of  tliirteen, 
to  Berlin  from  his  low  Polish  home,  was  even 
then  a  philosopher  and  dialectician  of  the  first 
order ;  and  this  training  he  received,  not  at  a 
university  or  a  theological  seminary,  but  amid 
the  sordid  conditions  of  his  wretched  Polish 
village  life.  The  manner  in  w^iich  at  the 
present  day  the  Jews  are  prominent  in  the 
learned  professions,  in  art  and  science,  in  Ger- 
many and  throughout  Europe,  is  chiefly  due 
to  this  continuous  tradition  of  culture  among 
them  for  so  many  centuries.  But  the  position 
which  they  actually  held  in  the  advancement 
of  European  culture  and  civilization  through 
the  Middle  Ages,  though  it  has  found  so  able 
an  expositor  as  the  great  botanist  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Schleiden  (himself  a  Christian),  is  far 
from  being  known  and  appreciated  by  the 
most  educated  and  the  best-read  people  among 
us.  I  shall  devote  a  special  chapter  to  this 
subject  as  treated  by  Schleiden. 

We  are  now  chiefly  interested  in  the  bear- 
ings upon  the  refinement  of  taste  which  this 
religious  life  had  for  the  Jews,  taking  them 
as  a  whole.  With  the  religious  functions  per- 
formed in  the  homes  tliemselves  the  more 
secular  side  of  the  national  Jewish  life  w^as 


134  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

kept  alive,  in  that  their  non-religious  Jewish 
literature  was  introduced  to  even  the  hum- 
blest, and  in  that  the  great  traditions  of  the 
race  were  kept  before  them  as  a  kind  of  bea- 
con-light to  a  more  ideal  social  existence. 

To  this  more  secular  Jewish  literature  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  down  to  our  times,  I  shall 
devote  a  special  chapter.  Its  wealth  and  va- 
riety would  again  be  an  object  of  astonishment 
to  well-read  people  in  our  times. 

But  what  we  are  concerned  with  is  the  fact 
that  the  common  people  remained  familiar 
with  it — that  it  became  thoroughly  domesti- 
cated among  them.  The  lyrical  Hebrew  songs 
of  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  sub- 
sequent centuries  were,  and  are,  sung  on  the 
Friday  evening,  together  with  the  reading  of 
the  Bible.  We  can  easily  gauge  the  refining 
influence  upon  the  people,  if  we  were  to  imag- 
ine the  modern  Greek  peasant  reciting  to  his 
children,  they  joining  in,  the  Homeric  poems 
and  the  Greek  tragedians,  with  a  real  feeling 
that  it  was  entirely  their  own ;  or  an  English 
navvy  or  petty  tradesman  reciting  Chaucer 
and  Shakespeare  in  the  family  circle,  with  the 
sense  of  its  being  essentially  their  own  life. 
With  the  Jews  we  must  add  the  additional 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     135 

poetic  element  of  the  remoteness  from  the 
present  sordid  age.  It  belonged  to  their  golden 
age.  They  ever  sang  of  Jerusalem,  that  star 
of  idealism  glimmering  brightly  in  their  dis- 
tant past,  but  showing  the  way  to  a  nobler  and 
fairer  future. 

They  felt  that  their  oppressors  and  despisers 
may  do  and  say  w^hat  they  w^ill,  they,  the  ped- 
dlers and  toilers,  were  still  the  chosen  people. 
This  produced  the  self-contained,  inner,  spirit- 
ual pride,  unostentatious  in  its  glow  by  their 
own  hearth,  the  very  opposite  of  the  plebeian 
parvenu's  pride,  which  is  directed  to  the  gal- 
lery, and  lives  by  the  support  and  admiration 
of  the  mass  who  admire  mean  things.  It  is 
the  pride  which  characterizes  the  self-centred 
nobility  of  a  truly  aristocratic  nature. 

And  this  has  also  produced  a  chivalry.  It 
is  a  mistake  to  think  that  in  their  dispersion 
the  Jews  have  always  suJSered  misery  and  per- 
secution. When  we  read  the  catalogue  of  their 
cruel  sufferings  the  impression  is  one  of  con- 
tinuous torture;  but  we  must  never  forget 
that  if  history  records  the  series  of  wars,  it 
does  not  in  the  same  way  give  due  proportion 
to  the  periods  of  intervening  prosperity  and 
growth  of  culture  and  happiness.     Nay,  if  we 


136  THE    JEWISH    QUESTIOJ^ 

were  merely  to  record  the  wars  in  our  century, 
from  the  Napoleonic  wars  through  the  Eevo- 
lution  of  1848,  the  Crimean,  the  American 
Civil  War,  tlie  Italian,  Danish,  Prusso- Aus- 
trian, Franco -Prussian,  Eusso- Turkish  wars, 
and  the  minor  wars  and  disturbances,  the  read- 
er of  our  history  some  time  hence  would  hardly 
realize  that  there  was  time  and  space  for  all  the 
glorious  advancement  in  art  and  science,  for 
the  growth  of  civilization  and  culture,  which 
so  brightly  stamp  our  age.  So,  too,  the  period 
of  martyrdom  of  the  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages 
and  the  subsequent  centuries  was  relieved  by 
centuries  of  prosperity  and  culture  in  which 
the  yoke  of  the  oppressor  was  not  felt ;  then, 
by  the  side  of  their  literature  and  science,  a 
high  chivalrous  life  and  character  were  de- 
veloped. Especially  among  the  Spanish  Jews 
do  we  find  chivalrous  and  polite  dignity.  We 
can  see  Kabbi  Astruc  de  Porta  drawing  him- 
self up,  in  answering  De  Penaforte,  the  Do- 
minican persecutor,  who  enjoined  upon  him 
not  to  use  the  liberty  of  discussion  to  slander 
Christianity,  when  in  1263  King  Jayme  called 
him  and  other  Jews  to  defend  their  faith 
against  Christianity,  "I,  too,  know  the  rules 
of  courtesy." 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     137 

As  to  their  pluck  and  courage,  it  certainly 
did  not  die  out  with  the  Maccabees  and  the 
Zealots.  I  will  not  mention  the  spiritual  cour- 
age it  required  for  the  whole  race  to  survive 
at  all  during  the  persecutions  which  might 
have  been  avoided  by  the  simple  act  of  con- 
version, or  of  the  thousands  that  burned  at  the 
stake  singing — I  should  say  even  numerically 
more  than  the  whole  Christian  martyrology 
has  to  show.  The  numbers  who  heroically  dur- 
ing the  Spanish  Inquisition,  and  at  other  times 
and  places,  preferred  burning  at  the  stake  to 
baptism,  the  perfidy  which  often  met  their  he- 
roic resistance,  would  fill  volumes.  In  the  his- 
tory of  the  Spanish  Jews  more  than  in  that  of 
any  other  of  their  numerous  communities  do 
w^e  meet  with  heroism,  courage,  and  chivalry. 
They  fought  in  the  Spanish  battles  as  the  brav- 
est knights.  Alfonso  X.  of  Castile  rewarded 
them  en  masse  for  their  warlike  assistance 
against  Seville,  and  gave  them,  when  the  ene- 
my's land  was  diWded,  a  village  which  was 
called  Aldea  de  los  Judeos.  They  fought  des- 
perately for  Don  Pedro,  even  after  the  Black 
Prince  had  forsaken  him,  defended  Burgos 
to  the  last  man,  so  that  even  their  opponent, 
Don  Enrico,  recognized  publicly  their  valor. 


138  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

But  even  in  Germany,  during  the  Black  Death 
and  the  butchery  of  Jews,  and  in  Poland,  the 
spirit  of  the  Maccabees  and  the  Zealots  had 
not  forsaken  them.  It  very  often  met  with  the 
basest  treachery  on  the  part  of  their  enemies 
and  allies.  One  instance  is  a  striking,  if  not 
a  typical,  one.  During  the  onslaught  of  the 
Cossacks  into  Poland  in  the  Thirt}^  Years'  War 
the  Jews  were  brave  defenders  of  the  Polish 
territory.  When  a  horde  of  Hadamaks  at- 
tacked the  town  of  Tulczyn,  six  thousand 
Christians  and  about  two  thousand  Jews 
retreated  to  the  fortress.  Nobles  and 
Jews  pledged  themselves  by  oath  to  defend 
the  fortress  to  the  last  man.  The  Cossacks 
resorted  to  a  stratagem,  and  assured  the 
nobles  that  they  were  only  fighting  against 
their  real  enemies,  the  Jews.  If  these  were 
handed  over  to  them  they  would  withdraw. 
The  nobles  asked  the  Jews  to  give  them  their 
arms ;  and  when  they  complied,  they  opened 
the  gates  to  the  Cossacks.  When  the  Cossacks 
had  plundered  the  Jews  they  proposed  to 
them  the  alternative  of  death  or  baptism.  Not 
one  of  them  accepted  the  latter,  and  they  were 
put  to  the  sword.  But  the  nobles  suffered  the 
same  fate,  as  the  Cossacks  held  that  there  was 


OF  T.r': 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TI^B^!* J39 


no  cause  to  liold  faith  by  the  faithless.  In 
more  modern  times  many  instances  of  forti- 
tude like  the  one  recently  published  of  a  New 
York  merchant  might  be  adduced.  Professor 
Cyrus  Adler  quotes  from  an  unpublished  letter 
of  Jared  Sparks :  "At  the  outbreak  of  the  Rev- 
olutionary War  a  Mr.  Gomez,  of  l^ew  York, 
proposed  to  a  member  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress that  he  form  a  company  of  soldiers  for 
service.  The  member  of  Congress  remonstrat- 
ed with  Mr.  Gomez  on  the  score  of  age,  he 
then  being  sixty-eight  years  of  age,  to  which 
Mr.  Gomez  replied,  'That  he  could  stop  a  bul- 
let as  well  as  a  younger  man.' " 

If  we  look  into  the  position  they  held  col- 
lectively as  a  people,  and  the  esteem  they  won 
for  themselves,  we  shall  find  that  they  can  well 
bear  comparison  with  any  other  body  of  peo- 
ple in  modern  history.  The  climax  of  their 
life  was  reached  in  Spain ;  but  we  shall  see 
that  all  through  the  Middle  Ages,  and  since 
the  Reformation,  in  other  countries,  too,  they 
.held  a  position  which  was  far  from  being  de- 
graded ;  while  intellectually  and  morally  they 
may  claim  to  have  stood  highest. 

An  interesting  historical  episode  is  the 
Kingdom  of  the   Chazari   or   Kozari.     They 


140  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

were  a  warlike  race  of  the  Finnish  tribe,  re- 
lated to  the  Bulgarians  and  Hungarians,  and 
settled  on  the  border  between  Asia  and  Eu- 
rope. Near  Astrachan  they  had  founded  an 
empire  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yolga.  They 
overran  Persia,  crossed  the  Caucasus,  and 
made  inroads  into  Armenia,  conquering  the 
Crimean  peninsula,  which  for  some  time  was 
called  after  them  Chazaria.  Tlie  Byzantine 
emperors  stood  in  great  fear  of  them,  lest 
they  should  be  tempted  to  conquer  Constan- 
tinople, and  paid  them  a  tribute.  Several  na- 
tions, including  the  Bulgarians,  were  their 
vassals,  and  the  Eussians  on  the  Dnieper  (the 
irony  of  history !)  had  to  present  them  with 
one  sword  and  a  fur  for  every  chimney. 

In  the  eighth  century  their  king,  Bulan  or 
Butshan,  adopted  Judaism,  together  with  his 
court  and  the  whole  aristocracy.  Under  one 
of  his  successors,  Obadja,  tlie  moral  influence 
of  Judaism  really  made  itself  felt.  He  in- 
vited learned  Jews  to  settle  among  his  people, 
founded  schools  and  synagogues,  which  greatly 
contributed  to  their  civilization.  There  is  a 
long  line  of  rulers  after  Obadja,  all  of  Jewish 
faith  (for  the  king  could  only  be  chosen  from 
this  faith),  but  manifesting  perfect  tolerance 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     141 

to  those  in  their  country  who  had  not  adopted 
Judaism,  and  who  had  equal  rights  with  the 
Jews.  I  think  it  not  impossible  that  many  of 
the  Jews  now  expelled  from  the  south  of 
Russia  are  descendants  of  this  people — and 
perliaps  also  a  number  of  Russian  orthodox 
Christians. 

If  we  begin  by  considering  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple as  a  whole  during  the  Middle  Ages  w^e 
must  first  cast  our  eyes  to  the  East,  while  at  a 
very  early  period  the  intellectual  leadership  is 
transferred  to  the  West. 

With  the  spread  of  Arabian  culture  under 
the  Caliphate  of  Bagdad,  the  Jews  were  inti- 
mately concerned.  From  the  time  of  Haroun 
Ah^ashid  and  his  son  Almamum,  the  Jewish 
rabbis  and  schoolmen  took  an  active  part  in 
the  science  and  learning  of  tlie  day,  which  was 
much  higher  in  the  East  than  it  was  during  the 
same  period  in  Europe.  As  the  intellectual 
and  religious  life  of  the  Jews  was  in  those 
days  centred  in  the  great  schools  of  Babylon, 
and  then  of  Sura  and  Pumbadita,  their  social 
life  had  as  its  recognized  head  the  prince  of 
exile,  or  the  exilarch,  as  he  was  called,  who  re- 
sided at  Bagdad,  and  was  recognized  as  the 


142  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

chief  of  all  Jews,  until  the  social  as  well 
as  intellectual  leadership  was  transferred  to 
Spain.  These  exilarchs  were  very  important 
j)ersonages  in  the  caliph's  empire,  and  were 
recognized  as  such  bj  the  rulers  and  much 
esteemed  by  them.  They  often,  we  may  say 
generally,  combined  the  position  of  religious 
and  scientific  teaching  with  that  of  their  po- 
litical and  social  leadership — a  fact,  moreover, 
which,  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Jewish 
history,  was  a  rule.  Both  these  functions  of 
the  exilarch  were  accompanied  with  great 
pomp  and  ceremony.  So,  for  instance,  we  are 
told  that  Samuel  Bar  Ali  Ilalevi  sat  on  a 
throne,  clad  in  gold  and  embroidery,  with  two 
thousand  disciples  at  his  feet.  And  in  the 
same  way  he  administered  justice  with  his  nine 
assessors  beside  him.  In  the  twelfth  century 
the  Caliph  Almuktafi  restored  to  the  office 
of  exilarch  its  former  brilliancy,  permitted 
them  to  live  in  princely  splendor,  to  wear  a 
turban  of  honor,  to  ride  surrounded  by  a  guard 
of  honor,  and  to  have  an  official  seal.  AVhen 
the  exilarch  appeared  in  public  or  approached 
the  caliph,  a  herald  preceded  him  shouting, 
"  Make  room  for  our  lord,  the  son  of  David." 
But  besides  the  Jews  dwellino:  under  the 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     143 

caliphate,  there  were  independent  Jewish 
nationalities  in  the  East.  So  in  the  country 
Aserbeidsan  there  was  a  warlike  tribe  of  Jews 
who  at  one  time,  under  David  Alruchi  (Alroy), 
had  a  history  full  of  enterprise  and  adventure. 
There  was  also  an  independent  warlike  tribe 
of  Jews  in  the  District  Chorasan,  in  the  moun- 
tains near  Nishabur.  In  the  twelfth  century 
there  were  many  Jews  living  as  far  as  Khiva 
and  Samarcand.  A  large  number  also  dwelt 
in  Arabia  about  this  time,  and  especially  in 
North  Arabia,  where  there  were  independent 
tribes  with  their  own  princes  and  citadels 
thoroughly  able  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
We  shall  examine  later  the  position  the  Jews 
held  in  Turkey  after  their  expulsion  from 
Spain  and  Portugal. 

If  we  turn  to  Europe,  in  which  we  are 
chiefly  interested,  the  Jews,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  were  settled  there  as  early  as  Roman 
times,  and  lived  on  terms  of  perfect  equality 
with  all  their  neighbors,  until  religious  intol- 
erance set  itself  to  repress  them  or  directed 
and  intensified  the  jealousy  which  their  suc- 
cess elicited.  When  the  west  of  Europe  was 
raised  out  of  its  barbarism  by  Charlemagne, 
this  great  leader  of  modern  civilization  also 


144  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

took  account  of  the  valuable  civilizing  in- 
fluence of  the  Jews,  especially  as  regarded 
commerce  and  learning.  He  granted  them 
privileges,  and  even  made  use  of  them  for 
diplomatic  services ;  and  as  he  transplanted 
learned  men  from  Italy  into  France  and  Ger- 
many in  order  that  their  wisdom  might  be 
diffused  among  those  people,  so  he  also  desired 
to  engraft  the  learning  of  the  Jews  in  these 
districts.  He  encouraged  them  to  found  Tal- 
mudic  schools,  and  transplanted  from  Lucca 
the  learned  family  Kalonymos  to  Narbonne 
about  the  year  787,  gave  them  a  large  tract  of 
land  in  the  town,  where  the  chief  of  the  family 
and  his  successors  were  called  princes,  while  the 
part  of  the  town  where  they  lived  was  called 
"  The  Court  of  the  King  of  the  Jews."  The 
position  which  the  Jew  Isaac  held  in  the  em- 
bassy of  Charlemagne  to  Haroun  Alrashid  is  a 
matter  of  history.  The  son  and  successor  of 
Charlemagne,  Louis,  showered  favors  upon  the 
Jews,  and  his  wife  Judith  had  the  greatest 
enthusiasm  for  the  ancient  Jewish  heroes. 
Even  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  in 
France  and  Germany  the  Jews  were  still  free 
possessors  of  land,  had  their  vineyards,  were 
artisans  and  merchants.    Until  the  time  of  the 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     145 

Crusades,  both  in  France  and  Germany,  they 
lived  in  comfort  and  even  in  great  affluence. 
They  were  rich  in  land  and  in  town  property. 
It  was  said  that  the  greater  part  of  Paris  be- 
longed to  them.  It  was  only  when  the  kings 
needed  money  that  they  occasionally  perse- 
cuted them  in  order  to  rob  them  of  what  they 
possessed.  In  the  south  of  France,  Marseilles, 
Beziers,  Montpellier,  Posquieres,  in  the  whole 
of  Languedoc  and  Provence,  at  Narbonne, 
Lunel,  Toulouse,  Bourg  de  St.  Gilles  there 
were  wealthy  and  thriving  communities  with 
independent  internal  jurisdiction  and  with 
rich  culture  flowing  from  their  flourishing 
rabbinic  schools.  The  same  applied  to  the 
north  of  France,  to  Germany,  Austria,  and 
Silesia.  In  the  latter  state  they  possessed 
several  villages  down  to  the  twelfth  century. 
Worms,  Mayence,  Cologne^  Frankfort  w^ere 
great  centres,  where  even  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury they  carried  arms  and  were  admitted  to 
duels,  where  they  fought  bravely  with  their 
Christian  brethren  against  any  common  foe. 
Wise  princes  often  stemmed  the  tide  of  fanat- 
icism and  jealousy  by  confirming  their  privi- 
leges or  adding  to  them.  So  the  Duke  Leo- 
pold of  Austria,  the  contemporary  of  Richard 

10 


146  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION" 

Coeur  de  Lion ;  and  so  the  Emperor  Frederick 
IL  (in  spite  of  his  inconsistent  treatment  of 
tliem)  recognized  their  civilizing  influence, 
corresponded  with  some  of  their  wise  men,  and 
invited  them  to  come  and  reside  at  Naples. 
So  also  the  Archduke  Frederick  I.  of  Austria, 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  made  several  of  them 
high  officials  and  bestowed  titles  upon  them. 
He  protected  them  against  the  attacks  of  their 
enemies,  and  made  special  laws  in  their  favor. 

In  Italy  and  in  the  Papal  States,  owing  to 
the  friendliness  which  the  Pope  Alexander  III. 
had  for  them,  down  to  the  end  of  the  twelfth 
century,  they  were  unhampered  in  their  free 
development.  This  era  produced  great  poets, 
who  were  certainly  in  touch,  if  not  in  com- 
munication, with  Dante,  and  ought  to  be  stud- 
ied by  all  those  who  read  the  greatest  Italian 
poet  and  are  concerned  with  the'  history  of 
civilization  in  this  period.  So  also  in  the 
south  of  Italy  and  in  Sicily  they  flourished 
nnhampered,  and  the  Normans  Roger  II.  and 
William  II.  confirmed  their  privileges. 

Before  their  banishment  from  England,  un- 
der Edward  I.,  the  Jews  had  been  very  pros- 
perous— so  prosperous  that,  no  doubt,  their 
wealth,  coupled  with  religious  fanaticism,  was 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     147 

the  cause  of  the  terrible  persecutions  and  mas- 
sacres wliich  they  experienced  subsequently  at 
York,  Northampton,  Exeter,  Lynn,  Norwich, 
and  other  towns.  Under  Henry  II.  their  posi- 
tion was  an  excellent  one.  Many  of  them  had 
great  palaces  in  London,  in  York,  and  in  other 
cities,  and  there  were  large  numbers  of  Chris- 
tians who  looked  with  such  favor  upon  their 
religion  that  they  became  converted  to  it,  so 
that  there  was  a  congregation  consisting  only 
of  such  converts. 

In  the  east  of  Europe,  in  Bohemia,  Moravia, 
and  Poland,  they  began  to  be  conspicuous  in 
the  tenth  century.  The  community  of  Prague 
is  perhaps  one  of  the  oldest  in  Europe,  and  of 
much  earlier  date  than  the  tenth  century  ;  but 
it  was  certainly  flourishing  in  that  time,  when 
the  apostle  to  the  Prussians,  Woytech  Adal- 
bert, formerly  Archbishop  of  Prague,  was  dis- 
turbed in  his  dreams  because  so  many  Chris- 
tians were  the  servants  of  the  Jews.  These 
Jews  of  Prague  were  an  independent  body, 
possessed  of  great  wealth.  In  Moravia  there 
were  also  Jews  of  importance,  one  of  whom 
built  a  castle  bearing  his  name  (Podiva).  In 
the  eleventh  century  there  were  Jews  in  the 
kingdom  of  Poland,  especially  in  the  capital, 


148  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

Gnesen,  where  they  were  not  forbidden  to 
have  Christian  slaves.  Under  Casimir  IV. 
the  privileges  which  originally  Boteslaw,  and 
then  Casimir  the  Great,  had  granted  them, 
and  which  were  considerable,  were  confirmed 
by  Casimir  lY.  and  even  increased.  The 
Jews  in  Poland  in  these  days  supplied  the 
class  of  the  bourgeoisie,  as  there  were  then 
only  nobles  and  serfs  in  that  country. 

But  the  brilliant  centre  of  Jewish  life  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  down  to  the  end  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  is  to  be  found  in  Spain. 

We  have  already  seen  that  there  were  im- 
portant and  flourishing  Jewish  communities 
in  the  Iberian  peninsulas  from  the  earliest 
times ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  tenth  century 
that  they  began  to  hold  that  prominent  social 
and  intellectual  position  which  they  main- 
tained there  for  about  five  centuries,  and  after 
their  expulsion  carried  with  them  to  other 
countries.  Their  own  moral  and  social  supe- 
riority in  Spain  is  coincident  with  the  superi- 
ority in  culture  of  this  country  under  the 
Moors  over  all  the  rest  of  Europe.  It  was 
under  Abdul  Ehaman  III.  that  Spain  became 
the  one  country  in  Europe  that  was  a  real  seat 
of  learning  and  art.     As  about  this  time  the 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     149 

great  seats  of  Jewish  life  and  thought  in  the 
East — Pumbadita  and  Sura — lost  in  their  in- 
fluence, the  torch  was  handed  on  from  these 
places  to  Spain,  w^ith  Cordova  as  the  first 
centre.  Moses  Ben  Cbanoch  found  his  way 
from  Sura  to  Cordova,  and  thus  was  an  imme- 
diate link  between  the  Eastern  school  and 
that  of  the  West ;  while  the  great  personality 
of  Chasdai  Ibn  Shaprut,  the  wealthy  philoso- 
pher, statesman,  and  ambassador,  the  patron  of 
all  sciences  and  arts,  really  gave  active  life  to 
the  flower  of  Hebrew^  culture  in  this  country. 
Not  only  Talmudic  studies  were  developed  to 
the  highest  degree,  but  also  the  sciences,  phi- 
losophy, philology,  together  with  the  culture 
of  the  muses  which  led  to  the  production  of 
that  rich  Neo-Hebraic  poetry,  of  the  wealth  of 
which  but  few  people  have  an  adequate  idea. 
The  political  and  social  position  of  the  Jews 
in  this  country  and  during  these  five  hundred 
years  was  also  so  brilliant  that  no  doubt  it 
contributed  much  towards  fanning  that  ani- 
mosity which  resulted  in  their  cruel  persecu- 
tion and  expulsion.  We  shall  look  into  some 
of  the  individual  cases  manifesting  this  high 
social  position ;  yet  if  we  attempt  to  convey  a 
picture  of  the  life  and   surroundings   of  the 


150  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

distingaislied  Jews  of  those  days,  the  ignorant 
modern  anti-Semite  would  find  it  difficult  to 
reconcile  it  with  his  conception  of  the  Old- 
clothes  Jew.  He  could  hardly  imagine  the 
distinguished  Jew  of  the  day,  in  the  tenth 
century,  passing  through  the  streets  of  Cor- 
dova, accompanied  by  eighteen  pages,  and  driv- 
ing in  a  carriage  of  state,  as  Jacob  Ibn  Gau 
was  wont  to  do.  He  could  not  easily  realize 
the  picture  conveyed  by  the  description  which 
the  great  Abrabanel  gives  of  his  life  in  Port- 
ugal before  his  expulsion  at  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century :  "  Peaceably  I  lived  in  my 
father's  house  in  the  far-famed  Lisbon,  and 
God  had  given  me  there  many  blessings, 
wealth,  and  honor.  I  had  built  great  edifices 
and  vast  halls,  my  house  was  a  centre  for  the 
learned  and  the  wise.  I  was  beloved  in  the 
palace  of  Alphonso,  a  mighty  and  just  king, 
under  whom  the  Jews  were  free  and  enjoyed 
prosperity.  I  was  closely  tied  to  him ;  he 
leant  upon  me,  and  as  long  as  he  lived  I 
freely  entered  the  palace." 

But  with  these  splendid  surroundhigs,  what 
really  brought  honor  among  the  Jews  were 
learning  and  a  lofty  character.  Pabbis  and 
teachers  did   not   receive   pay.     The   esteem 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  Tli 


which  the  possession  of  money  in  itself  brings, 
I  maintain,  was  less  prominent  among  them 
than  with  other  people,  and  only  began  to 
take  hold  among  the  Jews  when,  through  the 
general  current  of  European  history  in  the 
downfall  of  feudalism  and  with  the  French 
Eevolution,  money  became  such  a  source  of 
power  in  the  whole  of  Europe.  The  Jews 
were  then  affected  by  this  general  current.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that,  as  merchants  and 
workers,  they  did  not  always  desire  to  be  suc- 
cessful in  their  endeavors  to  gain  wealth, 
especially  as  it  was  the  one  means,  together 
with  their  learning,  of  gaining  power  in  the 
outer  world.  But  money,  in  the  early  times, 
did  not  carry  with  it  distinction  among  them- 
selves, and  was  not  looked  upon  as  the  highest 
good.  Their  teachers  and  moral  leaders  were 
those  most  respected,  and  were  received  witli 
a  reverence  which  others  gave  to  princes  and 
kings.  But  often  the  great  and  wealthy  were 
also  the  wisest  and  the  best.  The  great  fami- 
lies in  Spain  really  had  an  effective  nohlesse 
oblige;  they  were  all  trained  in  the  same 
schools  and  sought  for  distinction  by  intellect- 
ual superiority.  Nay,  I  venture  to  hold  that 
the  efficient  causes  which  led  to  their  success 


152  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

in  life  through  the  acquisition  of  wealth  and 
power,  as  merchants,  financiers,  or  physicians, 
were  immediately  the  same  as  those  which 
made  them  learned  and  wise.  The  theoretical 
and  practical  were  not  dissociated  in  Talmudic 
and  rabbinic  teaching.  The  Talmud  com- 
prised the  wisdom  of  life,  and  the  Talmudic 
disputations  sharpened  their  dialectic  sense.  I 
even  venture  to  think  that  the  clear-headed- 
ness, the  critical  power  and  sharpness  of  intel- 
lect, which  characterizes  the  Jews  in  our  time, 
is  in  some  measure  due  to  the  continuous  prac- 
tice in  their  Talmudic  disputations ;  and  it 
may  be  possible  that  this  habit  of  mind  has 
been  in  some  form  or  other  transmitted  by 
heredity  as  a  general  mental  quality.  At  all 
events  I  would  call  upon  the  reader  to  picture 
to  himself  a  worldly  aristocracy,  at  the  same 
time  the  leaders  in  thought  and  art,  and  to 
imagine  the  whole  people  taking  active  inter- 
est or  part  in  the  discussion  of  high  subjects. 
He  will  then  have  an  adequate  idea  of  the 
true  spirit  of  Jewish  life  in  Spain  during  the 
Middle  Ages — and,  for  that,  in  later  periods 
too,  down  to  many  instances  in  modern  times. 
Grouping  round  Ibn  Shaprut  there  were  a 
number  of  poets  and  philosophers,  such  as 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     153 

Charisi,  Menaliem  Ben  Saruk,  and  Dnnasli 
Ben  Labrat.  The  position  of  Ibn  Shapriit  in 
the  outer  world,  too,  was  a  great  one.  He  was 
practically  minister  of  foreign  affairs  to  his 
country,  and  took  an  important  part  in  the 
liistorical  embassies  which  were  sent — the  one 
by  the  Byzantine  emperor,  Constantino  VIII., 
the  other  by  the  German  emperor,  Otho  I. — to 
the  Court  of  Cordova.  Among  the  Spanish 
Jews  there  were  families  who  formed  a  kind 
of  aristocracy — but  always  an  aristocracy  based 
upon  intellectual  and  moral  superiority.  Such 
were  the  Ibn  Esras,  the  Alfachars,  Ibn  Fal- 
jags,  Ibn  Giats,  Benvenistes,  Ibn  Migashs, 
Abulafias,  and  others.  The  prominent  men 
among  them  who  had  gained  great  political 
influence  made  good  their  claim  by  being 
themselves  great  thinkers,  or  men  of  sci- 
ence, or  poets,  and  were  nearly  always  men 
of  the  noblest  character.  The  centres  of  cult- 
ure and  refinement  in  this  period,  besides  Cor- 
dova, were  Lucena  and  Granada. 

In  the  eleventh  century  not  only  did  liter- 
ature and  philology  reach  its  climax  among 
them,  but  also  philosophy  reached  its  highest 
point  under  Maimonides.  The  long  line  of 
poets  culminates  in  Yehuda-Ben-IIalevi. 


154  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION" 

Under  Ali  in  Spain,  in  the  first  half  of  the 
twelfth  century,  the  Jews  also  held  great  po- 
litical positions ;  several  of  them  were  viziers 
and  ambassadors,  while  nearly  all  these  were 
at  the  same  time  scientific  men,  generally  phy- 
sicians, and  were  learned  in  their  own  law. 
The  rabbis  themselves  were  either  poets  or 
protectors  of  poetry. 

After  this  period,  with  the  second  crusade, 
occasional  persecutions  began,  and  these  grew 
as  the  Catholic  clergy  gained  power  and  op- 
posed themselves  to  the  prominence  of  the 
Jews.  But  as  in  Germany,  with  its  numerous 
principalities,  so  here,  the  repressions  were 
only  local  and  temporary,  and  at  no  time  pre- 
vious to  their  expulsion  did  they  not  maintain 
their  position  in  Spain. 

When  Cordova  falls  from  its  height  Toledo 
becomes  the  great  centre,  and  through  the  in- 
fluence of  Ibn  Esra,  a  prince  by  position,  com- 
mander of  Callatrava,  the  fate  of  the  Jews  was 
a  very  happy  one.  Here  in  the  second  half  of 
the  twelfth  century,  under  Alphonso  YIII., 
the  congregation  numbered  12,000  members. 
They  erected  beautiful  synagogues,  and  they 
were  not  only  wealthy  and  cultured,  but  also 
brave  warriors.     The  young  men,  skilled  in 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODEEN  TIMES     155 

the  use  of  arms,  took  part  in  the  tourna- 
ments. 

There  was  one  fundamental  difficulty, 
which  was  the  cause  of  much  of  their  mis- 
fortune, namely,  that  while  on  the  one 
hand  they  were  too  independent  and  pow- 
erful to  be  completely  subjected  by  the  state 
in  which  they  lived,  they  could  still  not  form 
a  separate  state  of  their  own.  This  was  per- 
haps the  political  difficulty  which  made 
many  of  the  persecutions  possible.  As  a 
body  they  thus  only  had  part  in  local  politics, 
and  often  thus  stood  fighting  against  one 
another ;  and  as  an  historical  necessity  they 
often  were  crushed  between  the  two  contend- 
ing parties.  So  40,000  of  them  fought  against 
Alphonso  yi.  in  black  and  yellow  turbans, 
while  there  were  many  Jews  on  his  side. 
They  also  fought  valiantly  for  Alphonso  VIII. 
in  1195. 

In  Aragon  and  Catalonia,  under  Alphonso 
II.,  in  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  century, 
they  were  also  powerful  and  flourishing,  es- 
pecially the  communities  of  Barcelona,  Tude- 
la,  and  Gerona.  Even  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, with  l^achmani  and  his  family  as  their 
intellectual   leaders,   they  flourished,   though 


156  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

life  and  thought  and  poetry  seemed  from  this 
time  to  flow  here  in  thinner  streams. 

In  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
under  Alphonso  X.  of  Castile,  in  whose  army 
against  Seville  many  Jews  fought,  great  con- 
cessions were  made  to  them,  and  at  his  court 
there  were  Jews  in  high  office.  The  same 
power  was  given  them  by  Ferdinand  IV.,  in 
the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century ;  while 
the  regent  Don  Juan  Emmanuel  also  showed 
himself  their  good  friend  and  again  employed 
some  in  important  state  offices. 

So  also  in  the  south  of  Spain,  in  Castile, 
did  they  prosper  in  this  period,  and  this  posi- 
tion became  strengthened  under  Alphonso  XL 
But  under  his  son,  Don  Pedro  of  Castile,  their 
influence  in  this  country  grew  higher  than  at 
any  other  time.  His  own  private  counsellor, 
an  all-powerful  man  in  the  state,  was  Don 
Samuel  Ben  Meir  Alavi,  and  other  Jews  also 
held  important  positions  at  the  court.  The 
favor  which  Don  Pedro  showed  the  Jews  was 
so  great  that  he  was  called  a  Jew  by  his  ene- 
mies. His  brother  Henry,  his  successful  rival, 
rewarded  rather  than  punished  the  Jews  for 
their  faithfulness  to  their  king,  his  enemy. 
Though  he  protected  them  against  the  people 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODEEN  TIMES     157, 

who  began  to  cliafe  under  the  power  of  the 
Jews,  he  could  not  entirely  stem  the  current 
of  animosity,  and  soon,  in  the  year  1391,  the 
cruel  and  systematic  persecutions  began  which 
reached  their  height  in  the  Inquisition  of  Tor- 
quemada. 

The  persecutions  at  the  end  of  the  four- 
teenth century  and  in  the  subsequent  periods 
of  course  led  to  frequent  forced  conversions 
to  Christianity.  The  result  was  that  the  social 
position  of  the  Jews  was  for  the  time  being  bet- 
tered rather  than  repressed.  But  this  again 
led  to  more  barbarous  persecutions  than  before ; 
for  it  is  natural  that  those  who  thus  became 
Christians,  possessed  of  superior  wealth  and 
intellectual  power,  again  attained  the  highest 
positions,  while  they  were  still  connected  by 
blood,  and  generally  by  affection  and  sympa- 
thy, with  the  Jews  of  their  own  families. 
Thus  many  great  families,  like  the  De  la  Ca- 
ballaria,  were  partly  Christian  and  partly  Jew- 
ish. These  new  Christians  or  Marranos  formed 
a  third  party  of  enormous  power  and  influence, 
and  it  was  against  them  that  the  Inquisition 
was  chiefly  directed.  A  large  number  of  the 
great  noble  families  of  Spain  of  the  present 
day  are  of  Jewish  extraction ;  and  it  is  perhaps 


158  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

owing  to  liis  intimate  acquaintance  with  Span- 
ish history  and  literature  (for  upon  the  latter 
also  the  Jewish-Spanish  poets  had  considerable 
influence)  that  Mr.  Lowell  was  first  led  to  his 
theory  which  we  have  quoted  above. 

But  even  in  the  fifteenth  century  the  Jews 
themselves  had  not  lost  their  high  standing  in 
spite  of  the  Inquisition.  So,  under  Juan  II., 
especially  through  the  influence  of  Abraham 
Ben  Yeniste,  who  stood  high  with  him,  the 
Jews  began  to  recover  for  a  short  time  from 
the  blows  which  had  been  struck  at  them. 
In  Aragon,  also,  the  king's  counsellor,  Juan 
de  Pacheco  (though  of  Jewish  extraction 
himself,  an  enemy  of  the  Jews),  could  not 
forego  the  help  of  the  powerful  Ben  Veniste 
family. 

At  first,  under  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  (the 
former  of  whom,  it  was  said,  had  Jewish  blood 
in  his  veins),  the  new  Christians  Don  Pedro 
De  la  Caballaria  and  tlie  Jew  Don  Abraham 
Senior  had  considerable  influence. 

The  last  of  the  long  line  of  the  Jewish  states- 
men was  Don  Isaac  Abrabanel,  who  worthily 
closes  the  history  of  their  sojourn  in  Spain  for 
so  many  centuries.  For  at  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century  these  earliest  and  most  cult- 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     159 

ured  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Spanish  Pen- 
insula were  expelled  from  their  home. 

In  Portugal  the  same  fate  befell  them, 
though  a  few  years  later  than  in  Spain.  Here 
their  position  had  been  equally  brilliant.  The 
Jews  of  Portugal  had  a  complete  organization, 
they  stood  under  the  rabbi  -  chief  who  had 
almost  the  power  of  a  prince.  He  had  a  spe- 
cial seal,  was  chief -judge,  and  signed  docu- 
ments in  the  name  of  the  king.  Once  a  year 
he  travelled  on  inspection  over  the  whole  coun- 
try, accompanied  by  a  chief-judge  (quividor), 
a  chancellor,  a  secretary  (escrivao),  and  an  ex- 
ecutive oflScer  (porteiro  jurado).  There  were 
seven  rabbis  (ouvidores)  in  the  several  prov- 
inces. They  had  supreme  power  under  the 
chief  rabbi  in  their  provinces,  and  had  juris- 
diction in  civil  as  well  as  criminal  law.  Don 
Ferdinand,  King  of  Portugal,  had  a  Jew,  Don 
Judah,  as  his  minister  of  finance  (tesoreiro 
mor),  and  Don  David  Negro  as  a  privy-coun- 
cillor. 

To  read  the  account  of  the  banishment  of 
these  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Jews  from  the 
homes  of  their  fatliers — men  of  high  character 
and  gentlemen  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word — 
wandering   all  over  the  earth  in  search  of  a 


160  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

home,  is  one  of  the  most  painful  chapters  in 
history.  But  wherever  they  went  they  took 
their  culture  with  them,  and  as  their  expulsion 
from  Spain  is  coincident  with  the  decline  of 
the  prosperity  in  that  country,  so  their  emi- 
gration into  Holland  and  Hamburg,  and  even 
England,  is,  to  say  the  least,  coincident  with 
the  rise  of  prosperity  in  those  countries. 

But  it  is  a  mistake  to  believe  that,  with  the 
dispersion  of  the  Jews  of  Spain,  their  social  po- 
sition and  refinement  were  entirely  destroyed. 
Even  after  that,  as  a  body  and  as  individuals, 
they  are  still  possessed  of  great  distinction. 

Many  of  the  families  expelled  from  Spain 
and  Portugal  found  refuge  in  Italy,  where  in 
the  fifteenth  century  the  Jews  were  highly 
prosperous.  The  commerce  of  Yeiiice,  Flor- 
ence, Genoa,  and  Pisa  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries  made  it  desirable  that  some 
of  the  capital  possessed  by  the  Jews  should 
be  attracted  there.  Among  them  men  like 
Jechiel,  of  Pisa,  were  very  prominent  as  finan- 
ciers in  Tuscany.  As  physicians,  too,  they 
held  high  and  influential  positions,  such  as 
that  of  Guglielmo  di  Portaleone,  of  Mantua, 
who  was  the  court  physician  to  Ferdinand  of 
Naples   and  to  Galeazzo  Sforza.     The  inter- 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     161 

course  with  their  Christian  fellow -citizens 
was  hearty.  The  picture  of  the  wedding 
feast  at  tlie  marriage  of  the  daughter  of  the 
wealthy  Leo  of  Crema,  where  Christians  and 
Jews  danced  and  feasted  together  for  eight 
days,  is  an  instance  of  this.  Some  of  the  first 
printing-presses  at  Eeggio,  Mantua,  Ferrara, 
Pieva  di  Sacco,  Bologna,  Soncino,  Tscion,  and 
Naples  were  started  by  Jews.  Tliough,  owing 
to  the  strictures  of  their  religion,  they  were 
not  allowed  to  become  painters  or  sculptors, 
and  thus  did  not  contribute  materially  to  the 
artistic  revival  in  the  Kenaissance,  they  did 
much  to  foster  the  scientific  revival  in  Italy 
more  directly  tlirough  such  men  as  Messer 
Leon,  the  rabbi,  physician,  Latin  scholar,  and 
Aristotelian  philosopher  of  Mantua,  and  Elia 
del  Medigo  or  Elia  Cretensis,  the  teacher  of 
Pico  di  Mirandola.^ 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  under  Alexander 
VI.,  Julius  IL,  Leo  X.,  and  Clement  YIL,  they 
maintained  their  position  in  Italy.  Most  of 
these  popes  had  Jewish  physicians,  while  in 
the  north  of  Italy,  at  the  Court  of  Ferrara,  at 

*The  next  chapter  will  contain  the  researches  of  Professor 
Schleiden  on  this  subject.     But  it  was  necessary  to  mention 
a  few  instances  in  this  general  survey. 
11 


162  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Lecce,  at  Perugia,  at  Padova,  and  Ancona,  and 
many  other  cities,  there  were  many  influential 
Jews.  Pope  Paul  III.  was  so  favorable  to 
them  that  the  Bishop  of  Carpentras  wrote : 
"  Christians  have  never  received  as  many  fa- 
vors, privileges,  and  concessions  as  the  Jews 
receive  from  Paul  III.  They  liave  not  only 
been  advanced  with  distinctions  and  favors, 
but  they  liave  even  been  armed  with  them." 
The  same  was  done  towards  the  close  of  the 
century  by  Sixtus  V.  In  the  seventeentli 
century  there  were  still  distinguished  and 
wealthy  families,  especially  at  Livorno  and 
Florence. 

Another  large  party  of  these  refugees  from 
Spain  and  Portugal  went  to  Turkey,  where 
they  gained  for  themselves  high  positions. 
This  was  especially  the  case  with  the  physi- 
cians, who  found  great  favor  under  Sultan 
Selim  and  his  successors  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  Jews  had  their  own  political 
representative,  Kahiji,  as  he  was  called,  who 
had  free  access  to  the  Sultan,  and  protected 
their  interests.  In  the  second  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century  their  position  grew  still 
better  in  Turkey,  when  through  the  family 
of    the    Nassi,  and    especially   Don    Joseph, 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     163 

Duke  of  Naxos,  the  Jews  became  a  real  politi- 
cal power. 

The  most  important  body  settled  in  Hol- 
land, chiefly  in  Amsterdam.  Thitlier,  at  tlie 
beginning  of  tlie  seventeenth  century,  the 
centre  of  Jewish  life  was  transferred  from 
Spain.  Many  of  the  Marranos,  Neo- Chris- 
tians from  Spain,  had  settled  here,  and  had 
returned  to  Judaism;  and  there  grew  up  a 
community  witli  distinguished  members  in  all 
walks  of  life.  There  were  statesmen,  poets, 
men  of  science,  and  merchants,  founding  not 
only  a  centre  for  their  religious  life,  but  also 
for  higher  culture  and  an  extended  commerce, 
through  which  the  trade  of  Holland  no 
doubt  attained  its  vast  proportions.  Nor 
must  it  be  believed  that  this  community,  which 
produced  its  Spinoza,  who  seceded  from  it, 
had  not  among  its  members  remaining  true  to 
it  a  large  number  of  highly  intellectual  people 
of  all  shades  of  thought.  It  even  received 
into  its  body  men  like  Vicente  de  E-ocamora, 
who  had  previously  been  confessor  to  the 
Infanta  Maria,  subsequently  the  Empress  of 
Germany.  The  list  of  distinguished  names 
among  this  community  in  the  seventeenth 
century  is  a  long  one,  and  the  work  of  their 


164  THE  JEWISH  question 

poets  is  worthy  of  a  serious  monograph.  In 
1675,  when  there  were  4000  families  at  Am- 
sterdam, they  built  a  splendid  synagogue,  for 
the  inauguration  of  which  Komein  de  Ilooghe 
wrote  a  poem,  and  for  the  erection  of  which 
Christians  had  advanced  money. 

Another  mass  of  the  Portuguese  Jews  set- 
tled at  Hamburg,  and  with  their  advent  the 
prosperity  of  that  city  began.  Of  the  bank 
of  Hamburg,  founded  about  1620,  twelve  of 
these  Portuguese  Jews  were  the  originators ; 
and  these  families,  the  Lopes,  Brandons, 
Abandanas,  the  Da  Limas,  the  Cardosos,  the 
Texeiras,  and  others,  have  been  among  the 
most  prominent  citizens  of  this  merchant  city. 

At  Bordeaux  also  there  were  and  are  still 
ancient  families  of  Jewish  extraction  who 
held  and  hold  prominent  j)osition  as  mer- 
chants. 

In  England,  Cromwell  showed  great  prefer- 
ence for  the  Jewish  faith,  w^hicli  preference 
marked  the  Puritans  throughout,  and  it  is 
about  this  time  that  the  Jewisli  merchants, 
often  supposed  to  be  Lombards,  again  settled 
in  London,  wdiere,  before  that  time,  men  like 
Lopes,  Carvagal,  Pobles,  Mendes,  and  others, 
had  been  settled,  though   not   known   to   be 


IN  TPIE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     165 

Jews.  Tiiey  would  meet,  to  avoid  disturb- 
ance, in  the  cliapel  of  the  Portuguese  ambassa- 
dor, Antonio  de  Souza,  tlie  father-in-law  of 
Car  vagal,  wliich  really  was  converted  into  a 
synagogue.  But  it  was  not  until  the  return  of 
Charles  II.  that  the  merchants  from  Amster- 
dam were  allowed  to  settle  openly  in  England, 
where  their  activity  accrued  to  the  benefit  of 
English  commerce. 

With  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  intellectual  life  of  the  Jews  seems  to  have 
declined,  owing  to  the  general  course  of 
European  history,  as  well  as  to  the  degeneracy 
of  their  own  rabbinical  work  during  this 
period.  The  revival  of  their  intellectual  and 
moral  life  we  must  look  for  in  Germany. 
This  revival  of  refinement  we  find  at  first 
in  the  north  of  Germany,  especially  at  Berlin, 
where  the  personality  of  Moses  Mendelssohn 
played  no  small  part  in  the  raising  of  the 
intellectual  standard  for  the  whole  of  Ger- 
many, but  especially  for  that  of  the  Jewish 
world.     From  this  time  on  Berlin  became  a 

centre  of  the  hi^rhest  culture — literarv,  scien- 
ce xJ  J 

tific,  and  social.  It  is  difficult  to  convey  in  a 
few  words  the  picture  of  the  refinement  which 
existed  among   the    wealthy   and    prominent 


166  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

Jewish  families  of  Berlin  during  the  second 
half  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  centuries.  Though  one  may  not 
always  approve  of  the  tone  of  the  salons  of 
many  of  the  wealthy  amateurs  of  this  capital, 
there  is  abundance  of  proof  to  show  that  they 
stood  out  in  this  city  as  most  attractive  to 
those  who  sought  for  social  ease  and  intel- 
lectual refinement.  From  that  day  on  the 
Jews  in  Germany  have  taken  up  the  light  of 
the  education  which  prevails  in  tliat  country, 
and  have  mixed  in,  and  contributed  to,  its 
intellectual  advancement  (not  to  speak  of  its 
commercial  and  industrial  welfare)  as  have  no 
other  body  of  men  which  we  can  single  out 
as  the  constituent  factors  of  the  German  Em- 
pire. 

I  have  roughly  sketched  the  general  position 
which  the  Jews  have  held  in  Europe  from  the 
Middle  Ages  on ;  but  tlie  impression  I  wish  to 
convey  would  be  imperfect  if  1  did  not  attempt, 
by  singling  out  some  of  the  prominent  indi- 
viduals, to  give  an  idea  of  the  brighter  side 
of  the  social  position  they  occupied  for  these 
many  centuries.  It  is  difficult  to  make  such 
a  list  at  all  complete,  especially  as  so  many  of 
the  prominent  Jews  and  Jewish  families  be- 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     167 

came  converted,  and  were  forced  by  physical 
or  moral  pressure  to  hide  their  origin.  And, 
again,  there  are  many  prominent  men  witli 
mixed  Jewish  blood  in  their  veins  ;  and  thougli 
a  mother  may  have  had  the  greater  share  in 
producing  or  educating  a  man  of  genius  and 
note,  she  does  not  so  manifestly  stand  before 
the  eyes  of  history.  So,  for  instance,  it  is  not 
generally  known  that  the  mother  of  Montaigne 
was  Antoinette  de  Louppes,  the  daughter  of 
Pedro  Lopes,  a  Spanish  Jew ;  and  there  are 
no  doubt  numerous  cases  of  this  kind  of  which 
history  has  no  record.  And  it  is  furthermore 
a  mistake  to  believe  that  the  influence  which 
the  Jews  attained  was  due  to  tlieir  money.  I 
think  it  was  equally,  or  even  in  a  greater 
measure,  due  to  their  intellectual  and  moral 
qualities,  which  made  themselves  felt  often  in 
conjunction  with  their  wealth,  as  well  as  to  the 
fact  that,  for  several  centuries,  they  were  the 
real  students  of  science  in  Europe.  As  pliy- 
sicians  they  were  sought  for  by  the  great  of 
the  land  all  over  the  world,  so  that  even  the 
popes  who  issued  bulls  against  them  and  in- 
terdicted the  practice  of  medicine  would  only 
intrust  their  bodies  to  the  care  of  Jewisli  phy- 
sicians.    It  is  greatly  through  this  practice  of 


168  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

medicine  that  many  of  them  attained  the  in- 
fluential positions  in  the  world  which  they 
occupied.^ 

In  this  more  detailed  and  personal  examina- 
tion of  the  position  of  the  Jews,  many  promi- 
nent men  may  be  omitted,  while  names  and 
families  may  be  repeated  whicli  have  ah-eady 
been  touched  upon  in  the  more  general  treat- 
ment I  have  just  given. 

We  begin  the  record  with  the  times  of 
Charlemagne,  and  we  have  here  ah^eady  men- 
tioned the  family  Kalonymos,  who  at  Nar- 
bonne  bore  the  title  of  Princes  (Nassi)  down 
to  the  period  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews 
from  France.  A  branch  of  this  family  was  at 
the  same  time  also  settled  at  Mayence. 

Under  the   same   monarch   a   Jew  named 

*  I  have  heard  physicians  in  Germany  and  elsewhere  com- 
plain that  the  Jews  were  encroaching  upon  the  profession 
of  medicine.  If  the  Jews  were  weak  enough  to  fear  ordinary 
emulation  and  competition,  and  were  foolish  and  narrow- 
hearted  enough  to  express  their  fear,  they  might  with  greater 
historical  justice  consider  the  others  as  intruders  into  a 
domain  which  had  been  specially  their  own  for  centuries  in 
the  whole  of  Europe,  and  for  the  development  of  which  sci- 
ence they  have  ever  done  and  are  now  doing  more  than  their 
share. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     169 

Isaac  was  attached ,  in  797,  to  tlie  embassy  sent 
to  Haroun  Alrashid,  at  first  probably  only  an 
interpreter;  but  after  the  deatli  of  Landfried 
and  Sigisraund  he  returned  from  the  East  as 
the  chief.  Under  Lonis  the  Pious,  in  the 
tenth  century,  we  hear  of  a  nobleman  and 
priest  named  Bodo,  a  member  of  an  old  Alle- 
manian  family,  who  left  the  Church  and  be- 
came converted  to  Judaism,  and  settled  in 
Spain  under  the  name  of  Eliazar  in  the  year 
938. 

Under  Charles  the  Bold  there  were  two 
prominent  Jews  attached  to  his  court:  the 
one,  Zedeldah,  was  his  court  physician  ;  the 
otlier,  Judah,  stood  in  higli  favor  witli  him, 
and  was  called  by  him  the  "  faithful  one."  In 
the  eleventh  century,  Semon  Ben  Abum,  of 
Mayence,  was  a  man  far  famed  for  his  wealth, 
learning,  and  charitable  character. 

In  the  twelfth  century,  in  the  south  of 
, France,  we  have  as  another  brilliant  figure 
the  Princess  Ermengarde  Kalonymos  Ben 
Trodros,  a  descendant  of  those  Jews  planted 
there  by  Charlemagne.  The  family  of  the 
Kimchi  were  here  celebrated  as  philosophers 
and  students.  At  Beziers,  in  this  period, 
Moses  de  Cavarite  and  I^athan  were  adminis- 


170  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

trators  to  Viscount  Eoger,  the  friend  of  the 
Albigenses.  Towards  the  close  of  the  twelftli 
century  we  also  find  a  certain  Solomon  as  the 
financial  adviser  to  Duke  Leopold  of  Aus- 
tria, celebrated  in  his  connection  with  Kichard 
Coeur  de  Lion. 

How  thoroughly  the  Jews  were  nationalized 
in  this  period  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  a 
certain  Suezkint  of  Trimberg  (a  town  in  Sax- 
ony) was  a  German  minnesinger,  writing  in 
the  style  of  his  contemporaries,  Walter  von 
der  Vogelweide  and  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach. 

The  financial  adviser  of  Pope  Alexander 
III.  was  a  certain  Jechiel  Ben  Abraham,  of 
the  family  of  the  Dei  Mansi,  a  nephew  of  tlie 
IS'athan  Dei  Mansi  who  wrote  a  Talmudic  lex- 
icon. 

Of  the  prosperity  of  the  Jews  in  England  I 
liave  already  spoken.  Foremost  among  these 
was,  perhaps,  Aaron  of  York ;  while  a  certain 
Benedict  and  another  Joceus  of  the  same  city 
were  forcibly  converted  to  Christianity. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  the  brothers  Leb- 
lin  and  Nekelo  were  two  out  of  several  to 
whom  titles  were  given,  and  they  were  known 
officially  as  counts  and  chamberlains  of  the 
Duke  of  Austria. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     171 

If,  now,  we  turn  to  Spain,  we  find  in  tlie 
tenth  centnry  the  prominent  figure,  whom  we 
have  ah^eady  met,  Chasdai  Ben  Isaac  Ibn 
Shapriit,  of  the  family  of  Ibn  Ezra,  born  915 
and  died  970.  He  is  a  thoroughly  European 
figure,  combining  grace  with  his  deeper  moral 
and  intellectual  qualities.  His  father  Isaac 
was  wealthy  and  generous,  and  a  patron  of 
arts  and  sciences,  and  thus  infiuenced  the  di- 
rection of  taste  in  his  son,  who  began  to  study 
medicine  and  philology.  He  was  not  only  a 
thorongh  master  of  Hebrew  and  Arabic,  but 
also  a  fine  Latin  scholar.  In  941  he  was  made 
interpreter  and  diplomatic  agent  to  Abdul 
Eahman  III.,  and  became  the  leading  diplo- 
mat. I  have  already  mentioned  the  two  im- 
portant embassies  in  which  he  was  concerned. 
At  the  same  time,  also,  he  encouraged  culture 
among  the  Jews,  and  thus  there  groui3ed 
round  him  a  number  of  shining  lights  in 
science  and  art,  such  as  Menahem  Ben  Saruc, 
Dunash  Ben  Labrat,  and  others. 

A  very  remarkable  personality  among  the 
Jews  in  Spain  in  the  eleventh  century  was 
Samuel  Ibn  Nagrela.  He  was  a  patron  of 
science  and  art,  a  poet  and  WTiter  deeply 
learned  in  Talmudic  lore.     He  at  first  became 


f^^^^-S^ 


172  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

private  secretary  to  Ibn  Alarif,  Yizir  of  King 
Habus  of  Granada,  and  when  his  chief  was 
taken  ill  he  was  made  minister  of  state  (cativ), 
and  had  in  his  hand  the  diplomatic  affairs  of 
the  kingdom.  In  spite  of  his  enemies,  he  was 
for  thirty  years  the  practical  ruler  of  the  king- 
dom, living  in  the  palace  of  the  king.  Badis, 
the  successor  of  Ilabus,  confirmed  him  in  his 
position,  though  his  enemies  nearly  succeeded 
in  bringing  about  his  fall. 

There  is  extant  an  Arabian  poem  by  a  Mo- 
hammedan in  which  the  high  merits  of  this 
prominent  Jew  are  sung.  He  was  succeeded 
in  all  his  positions  and  dignities  by  his  son 
Abu  Ilussain  Joseph.  The  beginning  of  his 
loss  of  favor  with  King  Badis  shows  the 
courage  of  the  man.  The  king  had  formed 
a  terrible  resolve,  to  slay  all  the  Arab  popula- 
tion in  his  capital,  and  Joseph  did  all  in  his 
power  to  dissuade  him  from  this  resolution. 
But  Badis  stuck  to  his  purpose,  and  gave  the 
orders  to  his  officers.  Then  Joseph  sent  word 
to  the  chief  Arabs,  begging  them  not  to  go  to 
the  mosque  on  the  coming  Friday ;  and  when 
the  soldiers  of  the  king  entered,  they  found 
chiefly  Barbs  and  only  a  few  old  Arabs,  and 
could  not  carry  out  the  king's  diabolical  plan. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     173 

Enraged,  the  king  charged  Josepli  witli  hav- 
ing betrayed  his  secret ;  and  Joseph  said  freely 
that  the  king  ought  to  thank  God  that  he  had 
saved  him  from  this  great  danger.  ^'  The  time 
will  come,"  lie  said,  "  when  you  will  share  my 
views  and  approve  of  the  counsel  I  have  given 
yon."  Though  the  king  forgave  him,  still  the 
sting  remained,  and  soon  Joseph  fell  a  victim 
to  his  enemies.  Joseph  was  not  as  learned  as 
liis  father,  who,  besides  being  a  poet  in  seven 
languages,  wrote  a  new  psalter,  a  book  of 
sayings  and  sermons,  and  corresponded  with 
all  the  learned  men  in  the  East.  There  were 
other  learned  prominent  men  about  this  time, 
such  as  Ibn  Garnach  (Jona  Marinus)  and  the 
great  poet  Ibn  Gebirol. 

Alphonso  YI.  of  Castile  also  had  as  one  of 
his  chief  diplomats  and  ambassadors  Amram 
Ibn  Shalbib,  at  one  time  his  court  physician, 
and  afterwards  his  ambassador  to  the  various 
courts'.  Another  counsellor  in  state  affairs  was 
a  Jew  named  Cidelus.  Ibn  Shalbib  lost  his  life 
in  service;  for  when,  accompanied  by  five  hun- 
dred knights,  he  went  as  the  king's  ambassa- 
dor to  Seville,  Almutammed  was  so  incensed  at 
the  demands  which  he  conveyed  to  him,  that, 
against  all  custom,  he  slew  the  ambassador. 


174  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

This  King  Almutammed  had  as  his  astron- 
omer a  Jew  Ibn  Albalia,  who  was  at  the  same 
time  the  chief  of  the  Jewish  community  in 
the  principality  of  Seville.  His  Talmudic 
opponent  was  the  celebrated  Isaac  Alfassi. 
This  enmity  ended  in  a  very  touching  episode : 
when  Albalia's  son  Barucli  was  weeping  at  his 
death-bed,  the  dying  father  charged  him  that 
lie  was  to  go  after  his  death  to  his  enemy  Al- 
fassi at  Lucena,  and  should  convey  to  him  his 
words,  that  at  death's  door  he  forgave  Alfassi 
all  that  he,  by  word  of  mouth  or  in  writ- 
ing, had  said  against  him,  and  that  he  ex- 
pected Alfassi  would  also  forgive  him.  That 
he  hoped  that  Alfassi  would  welcome  the 
son  of  his  enemy.  The  son  followed  his 
father's  commands,  and  Alfassi  embraced  him 
with  tears,  and  said  to  him :  "  I  shall  hence- 
forth be  thy  father,"  and  he  lived  up  to  his 
promise. 

In  the  twelfth  century  a  Jewish  poet  and 
physician,  Solomon  Ibn  Almuallem,  of  Seville, 
was  court  physician  to  the  Caliph  Ali,  and 
bore  the  title  Prince  and  Yizir.  Ibn  Kam- 
nial  of  Saragossa  held  the  same  title.  He  was 
also  a  physician  and  a  man  of  very  noble 
character,  of  whom  all  the  poets  of  his  day 


IX  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     175 

sang.  Another  prominent  prince  of  the  time 
was  Ibn  FarussaL  lie  was  probably  in  the 
service  of  some  Christian  ruler  in  Spain,  and 
was  sent  as  ambassador  to  the  court  of  Murcia. 
The  astronomer  Ben  Chija  Albar  Geloni, 
about  the  same  time,  also  bore  the  title  of 
Prince  and  held  the  office  of  Chief  of  Police, 
as  we  might  call  him  (Zachib  as  Schorta). 

The  most  prominent  family  of  Granada  in 
this  period  were  the  four  brothers  Ibn  Esra, 
of  ancient  lineage,  wealthy,  and  gifted  with 
great  talents.  They  were  all  four  men  of 
letters,  but  the  greatest  among  them  was  the 
poet  Moses  Ibn  Esra.  But  he,  of  course,  was 
outshone  by  the  great  poetic  light  of  this  age, 
Jehuda  Ben  Halevi.  The  son  of  one  of  these 
brothers  Ibn  Esra — Jehuda  Ibn  Esra — stood 
high  in  favor  with  King  Alphonso  Raimundez 
in  the  twelfth  century.  When  Ibn  Esra  con- 
quered the  fortress  Calatravas,  on  the  boundary 
between  Toledo  and  Cordova,  the  emperor 
made  him  commander  of  the  fortress,  and  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  title  of  Prince.  In  1149 
he  was  made  marshal  of  the  king's  court.  Of 
the  culture  of  Toledo  in  this  period  I  have 
already  spoken.  With  such  men  as  Abraham 
Ibn  Daud   and  Abraham  Ibn  Esra,  learning 


176  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

and  poetry  flourished  here  as  never  before. 
Under  Alphonso  YIIL,  Joseph  Ben  Salamo 
Ibn  Shoshan  was  also  called  Prince,  and  stood 
very  close  to  his  king,  as  did  also  Abraham 
Ibn  Alfachar. 

In  Aragon  and  Catalonia  Sheshet  Ben  Ve- 
niste,  a  physician  and  poet,  was  also  in  the  dip- 
lomatic service  of  Alphonso  II.,  and  is  praised 
for  his  support  of  learning  and  science.  Next 
to  him  at  Barcelona  was  Samuel  Ibn  Chasdai 
Halevi,  a  prominent  and  learned  man.  He 
had  five  sons,  all  of  whom  were  men  of  dis- 
tinction, of  whom  one  is  chiefly  known  as  a 
translator  of  philosophical  works,  and  the 
writer  of  a  romance  or  novel  called  The 
Prince  and  tlie  Dervish.  In  the  same  period 
Benjamin  of  Tudela  was  a  great  traveller  in 
the  south  of  Europe,  in  Asia,  and  in  Africa. 
His  works  have  been  translated  into  most 
European  languages. 

But  the  most  powerful  light  of  this  age  was 
the  great  Maimonides,  the  Jewish  Aristotle. 
With  him  we  can  hardlj^  deal  adequately  here. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  we  find  Bachiel 
Ibn  Alconstantine,  a  great  physician  and  fa- 
vorite of  King  Jay  me. 

Among  the  prominent  physicians  and  men 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  Tl^l^^^iif'W^  *< 

of  science  of  this  period,  I  would  mention 
Abraham  of  Aragon,  and  Faragut  (Farag  Ibn 
Salomo).  The  former  was  tlie  most  celebrat- 
ed oculist  of  his  period ;  and  when  the  brother 
of  King  Louis  IX.,  of  France,  the  Count  of. 
Poitou  and  Toulouse,  w^as  stricken  with  disease 
of  the  eyes,  they  had  to  beg  for  help  from 
this  skilled  man.  Faragut  was  physician  to 
Charles  of  Anjou,  King  of  Sicily,  and  w\as  far 
famed  as  a  man  of  science.  So,  also,  in  the 
north  of  Italy,  w^as  ITillel  of  Verona,  a  philos- 
opher, physician,  and  writer  in  Hebrew  and 
Latin.     He  was  a  follower  of  Maimonides. 

In  France  the  Jews  still  kept  up  a  high  in- 
tellectual standard  in  the  south,  but  even  in 
the  north  such  men  as  Eabbi  Tarn,  of  Paris, 
kept  the  light  of  their  intellectual  life  burn- 
ing. Some  emigrated  from  Spain  to  France, 
such  as  the  founder  of  the  Ibn  Tibbon  family. 

In  Spain  w^e  find  a  member  of  the  old 
Abulafia  family,  Todras  Ben  Joseph  Ilalevi, 
prominent  at  the  court  of  Sancho  IV.  and  his 
queen,  Maria  de  Molina.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  Jehuda  Ibn  Waker 
was  powerful  at  the  court  of  the  Eegent  Don 
Juan  Emanuel ;  while  Samuel  Ibn  AVaker,  the 
astronomer   and   physician,  was  high  in  the 

12 


178  THE    JEAVISH    QUESTION 

favor  of  Alphonso  XI.  At  the  court  of  this 
monarch  we  hear  of  Don  Joseph  de  Ecija 
(Benveniste  Halevi),  who  was  treasurer  to  the 
king  and  privado^  or  privy-councillor.  We 
are  told  that  he  drove  in  his  state-coach  sur- 
rounded by  knights,  and  that  he  was  splendid 
in  his  hospitality. 

About  this  time  it  looked  as  if  the  intellect- 
ual influence  of  the  Jews  would  become  more 
directly  efficacious  in  the  whole  of  Europe ; 
and,  if  the  religious  prejudices  on  both  sides 
had  not  made  such  interaction  difficult,  the 
debt  of  modern  civilization  to  Judaism  would 
certainly  have  been  even  greater  than  it  now 
is.  Robert  of  Anjou,  King  of  Naples,  was  an 
admirer  of  Jewish  culture,  and  had  as  his 
teacher  in  Hebrew  Leone  Eomano,  who  in- 
troduced him  to  Jewish  literature;  while,  at 
the  same  time,  Leone  turned  his  attention  to 
scholastic  philosophy,  and  translated  into  He- 
brew the  writings  of  Albertus  Magnus  and 
Thomas  Aquinas.  At  the  instigation  of  the 
king,  Shemarja  Ikriti  wrote  a  commentary  to 
the  Old  Testament,  which  he  dedicated  to  the 
king.  While  the  king  was  in  the  south  of 
France  he  made  the  acquaintance  and  drew 
into  his  circle  the  Jewish  satirist,  Kalonymos 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AXD  MODERN  TIMES     lT9 

Ben  Kalonymos  (born  1284  and  died  1337). 
In  his  youtli  this  Kalonymos  translated  philo- 
sophical, medical,  and  astronomical  works  into 
Hebrew  from  the  Arabic.  He  also  wrote  eth- 
ical treatises.  But  when,  with  recommenda- 
tions from  King  Robert,  he  settled  at  Eome, 
he  wrote  a  satire  on  the  eccentricities  of  the 
Talmud,  and  this  satirical  vein  runs  through 
his  ethical  writings.  We  feel  a  breath  of  the 
Renaissance  wafted  through  the  Jewish  sever- 
ity of  the  day.  We  approach  this  spirit  still 
more  closely  in  Emanuel  Ben  Solomon  Romi, 
a  native  of  Rome  and  friend  of  Dante.  His 
was  a  light  and  satirical  muse,  perhaps  some- 
times too  light  ;  he  might  be  compared  to 
Boccaccio  rather  than  to  Dante.  But  the 
points  of  similarity  to  the  greatest  Italian  poet 
still  exist.  As  Dante  comprised  all  scholastic 
and  classical  tendencies  of  his  time  within  his 
own  personality,  so  Romi  is  master  of  the 
Biblical,  Talmudic,  and  Neo-Hebraic  elements, 
while  the  nascent  form  of  Italian  poetry  (he 
also  wrote  Italian  poems)  greatly  influenced 
his  own  form  of  composition.  But  it  is  no 
doubt  startling  to  find  the  weighty  and  digni- 
fied Hebrew  language  turned  into  the  lightest 
forms   which   satire,    the  novel,   and  parody 


180  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

bring  with  tliein.  As  a  curious  pendant  to 
Dante's  Divine  Comedy^  he  wrote,  as  Graetz 
puts  it,  a  human  comedy.  He  is  led  through 
the  Inferno  by  a  friend  Daniel,  where  he  meets 
all  the  wicked  of  the  world,  including  Aris- 
totle, because  he  had  taught  the  eternity  of 
the  world,  and  Plato,  because  he  had  taught 
the  reality  of  ideas.  And  so  he  wanders 
through  the  Inferno  and  to  the  gates  of  Para- 
dise, into  which  he  enters  and  is  graciously 
received  by  all  the  blessed  dwellers  in  this 
happy  abode.  The  poem  is  full  throughout 
of  satirical  allusions,  often  veiled  under  a  se- 
rious form. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century 
Don  Meir  de  Malea  was  treasurer  (almoxarif) 
of  Alphonso  X.,  surnamed  The  Wise,  and  his 
son,  Don  Zag,  succeeded  him  in  the  office.  The 
court  physician  of  this  king  was  a  certain 
Don  Judah  Ben  Moses  Cohen.  The  king's 
astronomer,  Don  Zag  Ibn  Said,  made  the  as- 
tronomical tables  which  have  since  been  called 
the  Alphonsian  Tables.  There  were  other 
Jewish  men  of  science  at  the  court  of  Al- 
phonso. 

In  Castile,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  anoth- 
er member  of  the  Abulafia-Halevi  family,  Don 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     181 

Samuel  Ben  Meir,  was  the  private  adviser 
(privado)  of  King  Don  Pedro.  At  the  same 
court  there  was  Abraham  Ibn  Zarzal,  his  phy- 
sician and  astrologer.  Under  Henry  II.  of 
Castile,  Don  Joseph  Piclion  stood  in  high  fa- 
vor.    So,  also,  Don  Samuel  Abrabanel. 

At  the  court  of  Aragon,  under  Don  Pedro 
IV.  and  Juan  I.,  Chasdai  Crescas  and  Isaac 
Ben  Sheshet  held  high  positions,  and  were 
men  of  great  refinement  and  culture. 

In  Portugal  at  this  time  King  Don  Ferdi- 
nand had  t^o  Jews  as  his  immediate  advisers, 
Don  Judah  and  Don  David  Negro. 

The  fate  of  the  Jews  during  the  Inquisition 
was  no  doubt  a  very  sad  one,  but  their  social 
position  was  still  very  high.  Nay,  this  was 
no  doubt  the  cause  of  much  of  the  opposition 
with  which  they  met.  The  severest  wounds 
were  often  struck  by  those  who  had  been  ren- 
egades from  their  own  camp ;  as,  for  instance, 
by  Paul  de  Santa  Maria,  or  Paulus  Burgen- 
ses  (Solomon  Ilalevi,  of  Burgos).  He  tried  to 
convert  two  prominent  Jews  of  his  age  with- 
out success,  both  physicians:  the  one,  Joseph 
Orabuena,  physician  to  Charles  HI.  of  Na- 
varra ;  the  other,  Meir  Alguades,  physician  to 
Don   Henry  III.  of  Castile.     The   physician 


182  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

Josua  Ben  Joseph  Lorqiii,  of  Canis,  and  Clias- 
dai  Crescas  wrote  critical  answers  to  the  at- 
tacks of  Santa  Maria. 

Owing  to  forcible  conversion  during  this 
period,  a  number  of  prominent  men  became 
Neo- Christians.  Among  these  were  Profiat 
Duran,  pliysician,  astronomer,  and  historian, 
and  David  En  Bonet  Buen  Giorn,  the  former 
of  whom  emigrated  and  returned  to  his  old 
faith.  The  physician  of  Pope  Benedict  XIII., 
Josua  Lorqui,  or  Jerome  de  Santa  Fe,  was  one 
of  these.  Juan  de  Pacheco,  a  member  of  the 
Jewish  family  Euy  Capon,  was,  as  a  Neo-Chris- 
tian,  the  chief  ruler  of  Castile  under  Henry  Y. 
To  this  class  also  belonged  Don  Pedro  de  la 
Cabbalaria,  who  stood  close  to  Queen  Isabella. 
So,  too,  the  minister  Diego  Arias  Davila,  whose 
son  Juan  was  Bishop  of  Segovia.  The  con- 
spiracy against  the  inquisitors  at  Seville  was 
headed  by  the  ISTeo-Christians  Diego  da  Sasun 
and  Juan  Fuan  Abulafia.  Such  Neo-Chris- 
tians  also  were  the  family  of  Coronel. 

Among  the  Jews  who  in  this  time  of  perse- 
cution remained  true  to  their  faith  and  were 
still  prominent  were  Don  Yidal  Ben  Veniste 
Ibn  Labi  (Ferrer),  of  Saragossa,  the  son  of 
Solomon  de  la  Cabbalaria,  physician  and  poet. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODEKN  TIMES     183 

and  liiglily  respected ;  Joseph  Albo,  of  Mon- 
real;  and  Abraliam  Ben  Yenesti,  the  friend  of 
King  Juan  11.  Henry  IV.  of  Castile  also  had 
as  his  physician  Jacob  Ibn  Nunes ;  while  Don 
Juan  II.  of  Aragon  was  cured  of  cataract  of 
both  eyes  by  the  celebrated  oculist  Don  Abi- 
atar  Ibn  Crescas  Ha  Cohen.  A  most  impor- 
tant position  with  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  was 
held  by  Don  Abraham  Senior,  to  whom  Isa- 
bella was  so  grateful  that  she  gave  him  a  pen- 
sion for  life. 

In  Italy,  in  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  the  wealthiest  financier  of  the  time 
w^as  a  certain  Jechiel  of  Pisa.  But  it  was 
chiefly  as  pliysicians  that  they  were  sought 
after.  One  of  the  most  celebrated  of  these 
was  Guiglielmo  de  Portaleone,  of  Mantua.  So, 
also,  Messer  Leon,  of  Naples,  who  was  a  phy- 
sician at  Mantua,  and  w^as  learned  as  a  scholar 
and  philologist.  The  most  interesting  figure 
among  tlie  Jews  in  Italy  was  Elia  del  Medigo, 
or  Elia  Cretensis,  who,  of  German  family  set- 
tled in  Crete,  had  returned  to  Italy.  He  wrote 
in  Latin  and  Greek,  and  became  the  teacher 
of  Pico  de  Mirandola.  A  quarrel  between  the 
learned  men  of  the  University  of  Padua  was 
referred  to  him  for  arbitration,  and  he  was 


184  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

made  Professor  of  Philosophy  at  this  univer- 
sity, and  lectured  here  as  well  as  at  Florence. 

In  Germany  the  Emperor  Frederick  III. 
was  the  friend  of  the  Jews,  and  recommended 
them  to  his  son  Maximilian  on  his  death-bed. 
He  had  as  his  physician  Jacob  Ben  Jechiel 
Loans,  upon  whom  he  conferred  knighthood. 
The  son  of  Jacob,  Goselin  Loans,  of  Eossheim 
(born  1478,  died  1555),  was  the  head  of  the 
Jews  in  Germany  during  this  period,  and  was 
called  their  regent  or  commander.  It  was  he 
who  taught  Eeuchlin  the  elements  of  Hebrew. 

The  greatest  Jewish  family  of  this  period 
were  the  Abrabanels,  and  to  this  family  be- 
longed the  last  of  the  Jewish  statesmen  in 
Spain,  Don  Isaac  Abrabanel.  He  was  also  a 
learned  man  and  an  author.  He  was  financial 
adviser  to  Alphonso  V.  of  Portugal,  the  friend 
of  the  Duke  Ferdinand  de  Braganza,  and 
highly  popular  with  people  of  all  classes  and 
faiths.  Being  a  friend  of  the  Duke  of  Bra- 
ganza, he  became  the  victim  of  the  enmity 
between  the  king,  Joan  IL,  the  son  of  Al- 
phonso v.,  and  the  duke;  and  thus  he  left 
his  home  and  wandered  through  Spain,  where 
he  devoted  himself  to  study.  Plere  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  called  him  to  assist  them  with  his 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     185 

financial  experience,  which  he  did  with  suc- 
cess, and  he  was  rewarded  with  honors  by 
these  monarchs.  But  his  high  position  and 
influence  could  not  avert  the  great  misfortune 
wliich  befell  the  Jews  in  Spain,  and  lie  him- 
self became  a  martyr  to  the  cause  and  left 
with  his  brethren.  At  first  he  turned  to 
Naples,  where  he  was  again  invited  to  stay 
by  Ferdinand  I.  and  his  son  Alphonso,  whom 
he  followed  to  Sicily  when  the  French  entered 
Naples.  He  then  fled  to  Corfu,  then  to  Mo- 
nopoli  in  Apulia,  and  at  last  died  at  Venice, 
where  his  sons  Isaac  and  Samuel  lived,  the 
one  a  physician,  the  other  a  statesman.  His 
eldest  son  settled  at  Genoa  as  physician  to 
Gonsalvo  de  Cordova,  the  conqueror  of  Na- 
ples, where  he  chiefly  devoted  himself  to  the 
study  of  mathematics,  philosophy,  and  phi- 
lology. 

The  youngest  son  of  Isaac  Abrabanel  was 
the  most  conspicuous  Jew  in  Italy  at  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  and  during  the  first  half  of 
the  sixteenth  centuries.  The  wealth  which  he 
acquired  enabled  him  to,  use  it  for  the  benefit 
of  others,  and  this  generosity  of  his  is  spoken 
of  by  the  Neo-Christian  poet  Samuel  Usque 
in  the  most  glowing  terms.     His  wife  Ben- 


186  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

venista  Abrabanella  was  an  equally  remarka- 
ble woman.  She  became  the  companion  of 
Leonora,  the  daughter  of  Don  Pedro,  Viceroy 
of  Naples;  and  when  Leonora  became  Duchess 
of  Tuscany  she  retained  her  warm  affection 
for  Ben  venista,  whom  she  called  "mother." 
The  Abrabanels'  house  became  a  centre  for 
men  of  letters  ajid  science  of  all  faiths. 

It  is  useless  to  continue  the  list  of  brilliant 
men  who  suffered  expulsion  or  deatli  at  the 
hands  of  the  Inquisition.  But  as  I  have  said 
before,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  with  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain  the  re- 
markable men  who  held  prominent  positions 
are  no  longer  to  be  found  among  them. 

In  spite  of  all  their  efforts,  seconded  by 
those  of  the  Neo- Christian  Duarte  Depaz 
(a  knight  and  commander  of  the  Order  of 
Christ),  the  Jews  were  also  expelled  from 
Portugal. 

Strange  to  say,  many  of  them  found  their 
way  to  Italy  where,  as  we  have  seen,  there 
were  already  many  distinguished  Jews.  At 
Genoa,  Josej)h  Cohen  was  physician  to  the 
Doge  Andrea  Doria.  He,  as  well  as  Solomon 
Ibn  Verga,  and  the  still  more  celebrated  Sam- 
uel Usque   (who,    with  his  brothers   Duarte 


IN  TUE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODEKN  TIMES     187 

Gomez  and  Duarte  Pinel,  settled  at  Ferrara), 
took  upon  themselves  the  task  of  writing  the 
history  of  the  Jews.  The  works  of  Samuel 
Usque  are  of  the  very  highest  quality.  At 
Ancona,  where  for  a  considerable  time  the 
Jews  were  very  prosperous,  Amatus  Lusita- 
nus,  the  celebrated  physician,  may  be  singled 
out.  The  family  of  Soncin  had  printing- 
presses  in  Lombardy  as  well  as  in  Constanti- 
nople and  at  Prague.  In  Italy  a  member  of 
the  old  Jewish  family  Dei  Kossi  (of  whom 
celebrated  descendants,  since  converted,  still 
exist),  Asarja  Ben  Mose  Dei  Eossi,  was  one  of 
the  most  learned  men  of  his  time,  not  only  in 
the  Talmud,  but  in  the  Hellenic  Jewish  writ- 
ings of  Philo,  Josephus,  and  the  Church  fa- 
thers. In  his  w^orks  he  compared  critically 
the  collateral  evidence  of  the  Talmud  and  of 
classical  profane  literature.  The  celebrated 
doctors  in  Italy,  David  de  Pomis  and  Elia 
Montalto,  must  also  be  mentioned.  The  Latin 
work  of  the  latter,  called  The  Hebrew  Phy- 
sician,  is  well  worth  reading.  Sixtus  V.  had 
as  his  financial  adviser  a  Neo-Christian  named 
Lopes,  who  fled  from  Portugal.  I  must  also 
notice  Leon  Modena  (born  1571,  died  164:9), 
one  of  the  most  versatile  of  men  in  history, 


188  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

who  had  many  Christian  pupils,  among  them 
Bishop  Jacob  Plantavicini  and  Jacob  Gaf- 
farelli.  I  ought  also  to  mention  Joseph  Solo- 
mon Delmedigo,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Galileo. 
The  family  of  Luzzato,  of  Venice  and  Padua, 
especially  Simon  and  Moses,  are  remarkable 
men ;  the  one  a  writer  in  prose,  the  other  a 
poet  who  wrote  dramas  and  psalms.  Moses 
Luzzato  died  1747. 

The  fate  of  several  of  the  prominent  Jews 
who  took  refuge  in  Turkey  is  interesting. 
The  banking-house  of  Mendes  was  at  the  time 
a  European  power.  The  transactions  of  this 
firm  with  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  with  the 
King  of  France,  and  many  other  princes,  con- 
tributed to  the  suffering  of  the  family.  The 
most  remarkable  figure  in  this  family  was 
Dona  Gracia,  a  noble  woman.  From  Ant- 
werp she  was  driven  with  her  family  to  Yen- 
ice,  where  she  could  not  remain  in  safety ; 
then  she  fled,  and  took  refuge  from  the  greed 
of  the  monarchs  in  Turkey,  where  they  were 
protected  by  the  Sultan  Suleiman.  Her  final 
resting-place  was  Ferrara.  In  1553  she  joined 
her  nephew,  Joan  Miques,  who  had  married 
her  daughter  Eeima  at  Constantinople.  This 
Joan  Miques  became  one  of  the  most  remark- 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     189 

able  personalities  in  Jewish  history.  He  was 
one  of  the  Marranos,  and  had  to  flee  from 
Portugal.  He  arrived  at  Constantinople  with 
letters  of  recommendation  from  the  French 
diplomats.  The  sultan  soon  recognized  in 
him  great  political  power,  and  he  was  made  a 
Turkish  bey.  He  brought  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion between  the  sultan  and  his  son  Selim, 
and  became  his  friend  and  nobleman  of  his 
guard.  The  sultan  gave  him  land  on  the  lake 
Tiberias,  in  Palestine,  in  order  that  he  might 
reconstruct  the  ancient  city,  which  was  to  be 
populated  exclusively  by  Jews.  When  Selim 
II.  succeeded  his  father  in  1566,  Joan  was 
created  Duke  of  Naxos,  and  was  the  most 
powerful  man  in  Turkey  after  the  sultan. 
Ambassadors  and  monarchs  had  to  crave  for 
his  assistance,  and  he  became  one  of  tlie  great 
powers  in  the  European  politics  of  the  time. 
He  at  one  time  formed  the  plan  to  found  a 
Jewish  state  at  Tiberias,  which  he  rebuilt,  and 
in  which  he  even  had  the  idea  of  starting  fac- 
tories to  compete  against  Venice.  But  his 
plan  was  not  realized.  ISText  to  him,  the  phy- 
sician Solomon  Ashkenazi  was  the  most  in- 
fluential man  in  Turkey.  He  was  chosen  by 
the  sultan  as  the  ambassador    to  conclude  a 


190  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

treaty  of  peace  with  Venice,  which  he  signed 
in  the  name  of  the  Porte. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  most  important  band 
of  Spanish  and  Portuguese  exiles  settled  in 
Holland,  at  Amsterdam.  Prominent  among 
these  was  the  Consul  Pallache,  Jacob  Tirado, 
the  learned  Moses  Halevi,  the  poet  Jacob  Is- 
rael Belmonte,  and  Alonso  de  Herrera,  a  de- 
scendant of  Gonsalo  de  Cordova,  the  conquer- 
or of  Naples,  who,  upon  leaving  Spain,  returned 
to  Judaism  in  Holland.  Another  poet  was 
David  Jesurun ;  while  De  Pina,  another  Neo- 
Christian,  joined  Jesurun  there  and  took  the 
name  of  Rohel  Jesurun.  The  first  Jews  who 
were  buried  in -the  Jewish  cemetery  at  Am- 
sterdam, founded  in  1614,  were  Emanuel  Pi- 
mental,  a  playfellow  of  King  Henry  IV.  of 
France,  called  by  him  King  of  the  Players, 
and  Elia  Felice  Montalto,  at  first  Neo-Chris- 
tian,  and  then  returning  to  Judaism.  He  was 
a  celebrated  physician  and  author  who  lived 
in  Livorno,  Venice,  and  at  last  at  Paris,  where 
he  was  physician  to  Mary  of  Medici.  He  died 
at  Tours,  and  the  queen  had  his  corpse  em- 
balmed and  sent  to  Amsterdam.  Further 
accretions  to  the  community  of  Amsterdam 
were  Isaac  de  Eocamoro,  formerly    a    monk 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     191 

under  the  name  of  Fray  Yicente  de  Eocamoro. 
He  was  confessor  to  the  Infanta  Maria,  subse- 
quently Empress  of  Germany.  He  joined  the 
Jewish  community  of  Amsterdam.  So,  also, 
did  Enriquez  de  Paz  of  Segovia,  the  Jewish 
Calderon.  In  his  youth  he  was  an  officer  in 
the  army,  and  distinguished  himself  through 
his  bravery,  receiving  the  order  of  San  Mi- 
guel and  being  raised  to  a  captaincy.  His 
nom  de  plume  was  Antonio  Enriquez  de  Go- 
mez. He  wrote  over  twenty- two  comedies 
in  Spanish,  which  were  much  admired  at 
Madrid.  He  had  to  flee  before  the  Inquisi- 
tion, lived  for  a  time  in  France,  and  then 
settled  at  Amsterdam.  Of  the  wealthy  mer- 
chant's family  (Penso),  one  member,  Felice 
Joseph,  also  known  under  the  name  of  De  la 
Vega,  wrote  poems  and  Hebrew  dramas. 
There  were  so  many  poets  at  Amsterdam  that 
an  academy  of  poetry  was  started  there.  There 
were  also  students  of  science  and  philosophy, 
among  whom  Balthasar  Orobio  de  Castro  was 
perhaps  the  most  prominent.  We  may  also 
mention  as  a  man  of  great  wealth  Isaac  Suaso, 
created  Baron  Avernes  de  Gras,  who  could 
advance  two  million  guilders  to  William  of 
Orange  when  he  went  to  England  to  seek  the 


192  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

crown,  saying,  "  If  you  snceeed,  you  will  repay 
me;  if  not,  I  shall  lose  it."  Francisco  Melo 
assisted  the  state  of  Holland  with  his  wealth ; 
while  a  certain  De  Pinto  left  several  mill- 
ions for  charitable  purposes,  not  only  to  Jew- 
ish institutions,  but  to  the  state,  to  Christian 
orphanages,  and  even  priests.  So,  also,  the 
Texeiras  and  Daniel  Abenser,  of  Hamburg, 
advanced  money  to  the  crown  of  Poland,  while 
Solomon  de  Medina,  knighted  by  Queen  Anne, 
was  one  of  the  wealthiest  merchants  of  London. 

Among  the  members  of  the  community  at 
Hamburg,  the  earliest  and  most  prominent 
were  the  family  of  the  Texeiras,  of  which  the 
wealthy  founder  of  the  bank  of  Hamburg, 
Diego  Texeira  de  Mattos,  of  Portuguese  ori- 
gin, a  nobleman  and  formerly  Spanish  minis- 
ter-resident in  Flanders,  was  the  most  prom- 
inent. When  an  old  man,  he  returned  to  his 
Jewish  faith.  The  brilliant  social  life  they 
led  was  to  no  small  degree  the  cause  of  their 
finding  some  enemies  at  Hamburg  who  were 
jealous  of  them. 

Benjamin  Musafia  was  the  physician  to 
King  Christian  IV.  of  Denmark.  Duarte 
Nunes  de  Costa  and  Jacob  Curiel  were  the 
diplomatic  agents  to  the  court  of  Portugal, 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     193 

and  Ferdinand  IV.  created  tlie  Jewish  autlior, 
Emanuel  Resales,  a  count. 

An  offshoot  of  the  Amsterdam  congregation 
settled  in  Brazil,  where  at  Pernambuco  they 
w^ere  especially  numerous.  I  have  ah'eady 
mentioned  the  names  of  some  of  the  promi- 
nent families  residing  in  England  under  Charles 
II.  Many  of  them  have  become  thoronghly 
anglicized  since  then,  and  from  them  have 
sprung  a  large  number  of  prominent  men  in 
the  present  day. 

In  France,  especially  at  Bordeaux,  there 
w^ere  prominent  Jews  of  old  families,  among 
them  Isaac  Pinto,  w^ho  afterwards  settled  at 
Amsterdam.  The  family  Gradis,  at  Bordeaux, 
w^ere  great  merchants,  w^hose  ships  sailed  to 
all  quarters  of  the  globe,  and  they  were  highly 
honored  in  their  own  city.  In  Paris,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  Eodrigues  Pereira  was  a 
man  of  some  note,  for  he  invented  a  lan- 
guage for  the  deaf  and  dumb  before  the 
Abbe  de  I'Epee.  After  this  period,  and  es- 
pecially in  our  own  times,  the  number  of 
distinguished  Jews  of  the  type  of  Cremieux 
and  Jules  Simon  in  all  walks  of  life  has  been 
so  great,  that  it  could  only  be  realized  by 
those  who  take  particular  pains  to  inquire  into 

13 


194  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

the  origin  of  many  of  the  prominent  French- 
men. 

Yet,  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  in  onr 
own  time,  I  believe  that  the  intellectual  and 
moral  leadership  of  the  Jews  was  transferred 
from  Spain  to  Germany.  The  beginning  of 
this  leadership  is  to  be  attributed  to  one  man — 
namely,  Moses  Mendelssohn.  He  was  not  only 
the  philosopher  who  thrilled  the  whole  of  cul- 
tivated Europe  with  sympathy  and  admira- 
tion, but  the  Jews  have  further  to  thank  him 
for  the  tone  of  refinement  he  introduced  into 
Jewish  society  at  Berlin.  The  family  of  the 
Mendelssohns,  Friedlanders,  Hitzigs,  Herzes, 
and  many  others,  formed,  as  I  have  said,  a 
real  centre,  with  salons  which  were  certainly 
among  the  foremost  of  that  capital.  The  esprit 
and  conversation  of  the  ladix3s  of  this  circle 
(among  whom  many  became  prominent  in  the 
literary  life  of  Germany  of  that  date),  such  as 
Henrietta  Herz  and  Kahel  Lewin  (Yarnhagen 
von  Ense),  attracted  into  this  centre  men  like 
the  Humboldts,  Schleiermacher,  Frederick 
von  Schlegel,  the  great  Mirabeau,  and  many 
others.  But  the  real  influence  of  this  Jew- 
ish circle  is  to  be  found  among  the  young 
men  v;ho  formed  a  league  for  the  purpose  of 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  AND  MODERN  TIMES     195 

giving  vent  to  tlieir  higher  intellectual  and 
moral  aspirations.  They  had  their  literary 
organ,  and  it  is  no  doubt  that  here  the  first 
seeds  of  the  poetic  productions  of  Heine  were 
sown,  the  influence  penetrating  throughout  the 
whole  of  Germany.  The  poet  Boerne,  too,  is 
one  of  the  leading  lights  in  the  life  of  the  Jews 
in  the  first  half  of  this  century.  Since  then, 
as  I  have  said  in  the  beginning  of  this  chap- 
ter, the  influence  of  individual  Jews  in  the 
establishment  of  the  high  intellectual  standard 
which  prevails  in  Germany  can  hardly  be 
overestimated.  As  Jews,  or  as  descendants  of 
Jews,  there  are  so  many  shining  lights  in  the 
Germany  of  to-day  that  an  enumeration  of 
them  would  be  an  endless  task.  But  it  is  not 
only  in  their  intellectual  achievements  that 
they  shine  in  that  country.  I  maintain  that 
some  circles  of  Jews  in  all  the  German  cities 
manifest  social  refinement  and  culture  not  to 
be  surpassed  by  any  social  groups  in  the  Ger- 
man empire ;  and  whoever  has  had  the  good- 
fortune  of  being  introduced  into  such  circles 
will  have  to  admit  that,  according  to  German 
standards,  he  can  hardly  find  more  thorongh 
specimens  of  gentlemen  and  ladies  in  every 
sense  of  those  terms. 


196  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

At  the  close  of  these  remarks,  I  cannot  help 
feeling  tliat  I  have  dwelt  too  much  on  the 
brilliancy  of  the  surface  life  of  the  Jewish 
people,  and  I  may  appear  to  attach  too  much 
value  to  the  outer  glitter  of  the  guinea  stamp. 
For  it  is,  after  all,  owing  to  the  inner  moral 
and  intellectual  qualities  of  the  Jewish  people 
that  they  have  a  claim  to  the  respect  of  all 
right-minded  men.  But  in  this  chapter  I 
have  merely  set  myself  the  task,  independent- 
ly of  the  value  of  such  considerations  to  se- 
rious-minded men,  of  settling  a  question  of 
fact,  though  it  be  only  a  surface  fact,  of  the 
national  life  of  the  Jews.  I  have  dealt  with 
the  outer  appearance  independently  of  that 
which  is  wdthin,  and  it  appears  to  me  that  in 
this  respect  also  the  claims  of  the  Jews  are  as 
high  as  those  of  any  other  group  of  men  which 
we  can  distinguish  in  modern  Occidental  states, 
and  much  higher  than  those  of  most.  But  in 
their  intellectual  life  their  claims  must  be  ad- 
mitted to  be  still  higher. 


IV 


THE   INFLTJENCE    OF  THE  JEWS  UPON   THE    CIVIL- 
IZATION  OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGES 

The  facts  wliicli  are  liere  given  concerning 
the  intellectual  life  of  the  Jews  in  the  Middle 
Ages  are  taken  from  the  work  of  the  late 
Professor  M.  J.  Schleiden.  This  man,  one  of 
the  brilliant  lights  of  German  science,  was 
born  of  Protestant  parents,  at  Hamburg,  in 
the  year  1804,  where  he  received  most  of  his 
schooling.  In  1824  he  entered  the  Univer- 
sity of  Heidelberg  as  a  student  of  law,  and 
after  three  years'  work  at  this  university, 
turned  his  attention  to  the  study  of  medicine 
at  Gottingen  and  at  Berlin,  and  finally  spe- 
cialized in  the  study  of  botany.  In  1839  he 
was  made  professor  of  this  subject  in  tlie  Uni- 
versity of  Jena,  which  chair  he  held  for  many 
years,  exchanging  it  in  1863  for  the  same 
professorship  at  the  University  of  Dorpat. 
He  died  in  1881,  and  left  behind  him  one  of 


198  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

the  greatest  names  as  a  votary  of  his  science, 
and  a  loving  remembrance  among  all  those 
who  knew  him  as  a  man  of  the  purest  and  no- 
blest character.  In  1842-3  he  published  his 
Principles  of  Botany^  in  which  he  was  one 
of  the  first  to  apply  the  modern  inductive 
method,  and  one  of  the  fighters  for  those 
principles  of  scientific  investigation  which 
have  now  been  adopted  to  the  benefit  and 
the  advancement  of  the  whole  of  European 
thought.  Besides  his  more  popular  work, 
Plants  and  their  Life^  he  also  wrote  on 
the  physiology  of  animals  as  well  as  of  plants, 
and  contributed  many  valuable  and  important 
monographs  on  that  and  other  subjects.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  his  inquiries  into  the  history 
of  botany  first  led  him  to  consider  the  sub- 
ject in  which  we  are  here  interested.  But  at 
the  same  time  the  fact  of  his  taking  up  this 
cause  gives  proof  of  a  chivalrous  nature  roused 
to  a  healthy  indignation  by  the  wrongs  suf- 
fered by  a  weaker  minority ;  and  I  believe  that 
it  will  stand  as  a  monument  in  proof  of  a  noble 
heart,  as  his  other  works  will  be  a  lasting  rec- 
ord of  his  intellectual  greatness.  Considering 
the  quality  of  this  work,  I  have  remained  con- 
tent to  translate  the  most  important  portions 


INFLUENCE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES    199 

from  this  memoir,  and  I  shall  indicate  any  de- 
viation from  his  own  words  in  the  course  of 
my  translation.^     He  begins  thus : 

My  work  in  connection  with  the  history 
of  botany  necessarily  led  me  to  the  writings 
of  Albertus  Magnus.  His  position  with  re- 
gard to  Thomas  Aquinas,  his  dependence  upon 
■  Aristotle  and  Arabian  authors  naturally  sug- 
gested the  question  as  to  the  relation  of  these 
thinkers  to  one  another  and  to  earlier  common 
sources.  I  was  carried  further  and  further  in 
my  investigations,  until  there  came  to  me  a 
clear  insight  into  a  group  of  facts  which  our 
greater  historical  works  entirely  ignore,  and 
which  have  still  been  of  vital  influence  in  di- 
recting the  development  of  civilized  human- 
ity. A  short  survey  of  the  facts  I  have  thus 
found  is  presented  in  the  following  essay  : 

The  Jews  are,  and  remain,  the  most  remark- 
able of  peoples ;  and  if  one  wishes  to  adopt  the 
symbolism  of  a  Providential  dispensation,  one 
may  well  call  them  "  the  chosen  people."     The 

*  Professor  Schleiden's  Essay  first  appeared  in  Wester- 
mann's  lllustrirte  Deutsche  Monatschrift^  and  has  been  pub- 
lished separately  at  Leipzig  (Baumgartner's),  1877,  under  the 
title,  "Die  Bcdeutung  der  Juden  fiir  Erhaltung  und  Wieder- 
belcl)unfr  der  Wissenschaften  im  Mittelalter." 


200  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

mere  fact  tliat  they  have  not  only  maintained 
themselves  as  a  people,  true  to  their  original 
spiritual  character,  for  more  than  two  thousand 
years: — and  this  in  spite  of  the  dire  and  bloody 
persecution  which  they  have  sustained  at  the 
hands  of  the  pagan  world,  the  Persians,  the 
Mohammedans,  and  the  Christians — but  that 
they  are  continually  growing  and  spreading 
in  greater  proportion  than  any  other  people, 
in  this  and  every  climate,  ought  to  present  in 
their  life  tlie  most  interesting  task  for  a  seri- 
ous and  refined  study  of  history.  They  are 
the  oldest  people  standing  before  the  world  as 
the  bearer  of  pure  monotheism,  and  because 
of  the  very  purity  of  tlieir  faith  in  God  they 
have  established  and  have  clung  to  the  moral 
law  as  the  real  and  true  manifestation  of  re- 
ligious service.  The  wliole  of  Europe  has  liad 
its  Middle  Ages,  a  period  of  coarseness,  of  in- 
tellectual and  moral  decay,  sadder  than  any 
imagination  can  depict ;  only  the  Jews  make 
an  exception.  In  spite  of  dispersion  and  op- 
pression wliich  robbed  them  of  the  simplest 
rights  of  man — nay,  his  very  right  to  live — 
tlie  development  of  their  intellectual  life  has 
been  continuous,  and  has  preserved  for  the  oth- 
er nations,  and  has  handed  over  to  them,  the 


INFLUENCE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES    201 

foundations  of  morality  and  of  spiritual  life. 
But,  as  is  often  the  case  with  natures  endowed 
with  moral  nobility,  they  sometimes  faltered 
when  fortunate  moments  made  life  too  easy 
for  them ;  but  every  annoyance  and  every  mis- 
ery which  only  left  them  a  half-human  exist- 
euQe  merely  had  as  a  result  to  ennoble  them, 
to  revive  them  into  renewed  exertion  towards 
higher  moral  and  intellectual  aims. 

The  devastation  of  Jewish  lands  by  the  As- 
syrians and  Babylonians  led  them  in  the  first 
place  to  concentrate  themselves  as  regards 
their  own  mental  life,  and  to  collect  into  a 
unity  the  total  intellectual  gain  of  their  pre- 
vious spiritual  life.  In  the  form  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch, the  Psalms  and  Prophets,  they  have 
presented  even  the  Christian  world  of  our  day 
with  a  source  of  devotion  and  inspiration.  Now 
the  Jews  carried  the  blessing  they  had  thus 
won  into  their  life.  Unshakable  faith  in  God 
and  moral  conduct,  as  far  as  it  had  already 
manifested  itself  to  them  as  duty,  gave  them 
the  strength  of  enthusiasm  with  which  this 
small  nation  maintained  the  struggle  against 
the  Roman  Empire  for  more  than  a  century ; 
so  that  Eome  had  to  bring  more  force  to 
bear  against  them  than  against  any  other  na- 


202  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

tion,  however  great  and  powerful.  They  take 
their  place  beside  the  greatest  heroes  whose 
deeds  Iiistory  records,  as  well  because  of  their 
heroic  courage  under  the  Maccabees,  as  also 
during  the  struggle  which  ended  with  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem  under  Titus,  the  fight 
of  desperation  which  lasted  for  two  years 
under  Bar-Kochba,  and,  later,  their  defence  of 
Naples  against  Belisarius,  and  of  the  Pyrenean 
passes  against  the  Franks.  They  succumbed 
to  the  enormous  physical  superiority :  the  na- 
tion as  such  was  annihilated,  and  the  people 
dispersed  over  the  whole  world  from  China 
to  India,  through  Africa  and  Europe  to  the 
extreme  west  of  the  then  known  world.  But 
the  people  remained  a  people,  retained  an  un- 
interrupted connection  among  all  its  members, 
and  always  recognized  in  the  advancement  of 
its  moral  and  intellectual  life  a  centre  which 
united  them  all.  Wherever  the  Jew  went  he 
found  people  who  had  community  of  faith 
and  ideas,  and  was  sure  of  a  kind  reception 
and  of  active  support. 

There  are  three  factors  which  stand  out  as 
facilitating  the  diffusion  of  intellectual  activ- 
ity and  the  fruits  of  it  among  the  whole  of 
the  Jewish  nation. 


INFLUENCE    IN   THE    MIDDLE    AGES         2ii3___^]L;' 

First,  tliere  was  their  commercial  ability. 
The  ancients  ascribe  to  the  Phoenicians  the  be- 
ginning of  commerce.  I  believe  that  the  geo- 
graphical term  Phoenicians  was  never  sharp- 
ly defined  or  meant  to  be.  Phoenicians  and 
Syrians  only  denoted  the  Semites  who  lived 
more  on  the  coast  or  more  in  the  interior. 
Herodotus  implies  by  the  term  Phoenicians 
the  Syrians  carrying  on  commerce  in  the 
Mediterranean.  He  travelled  in  Syria  about 
the  time  of  the  exile,  but  does  not  know  an 
Israel  or  a  Judsea,  but  only  Syrians.  His  Pal- 
estinian Syrians  are  those  who  lived  more  to 
the  south,  towards  the  coast — the  Philistines 
of  the  Jews ;  the  city  he  mentions  is  probably, 
judging  from  the  route  he  describes,  Gaza. 
The  Israelitish  tribes  Zebulun,  Dan,  and  Asser 
carried  on  commerce  by  sea  and  joined  the 
Phoenicians  on  the  sea.  That  the  Israelites 
were  in  general  bold  mariners  is  proved  by 
their  commerce  with  Opliir  under  Usia  in  the 
eighth  century  e.g.,  i.e.,  about  the  time  of  the 
Odyssee,  as  well  as  the  commercial  enterprise 
of  the  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the 
transmaritime  commerce  was  chiefly  in  their 
hands.  If  we  consider  the  bearings  of  these 
several  facts,  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  among 


204  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

the  Phoenicians  carrying  on  maritime  com- 
merce there  were  always  Jews  wlio  spoke 
nearly  the  same  language,  and  were  mental- 
ly related  to  them  by  their  former  religious 
education ;  furthermore,  that  Jews  at  once 
congregated  in  the  colonies  founded  by  the 
Phoenicians  on  the  north  coast  of  Africa,  the 
Italian  islands,  at  Marseilles,  in  Spain,  etc. 
They  thus  readily  found  connections  when, 
owing  to  the  frequent  devastation  of  their  na- 
tive home,  they  were  led  to  emigrate.  It  is 
thus  certain  that  there  existed  before  our  era 
Jewisli  communities  even  at  the  furthermost 
point  in  the  west  of  Europe,  while  we  were 
already  historically  assured  of  their  settlement 
at  this  time  in  Assyria,  Babylonia,  Egypt,  and 
Eome.  Paul  entered  Eome  only  on  his  jour- 
ney to  Spain ;  and  he  could  only  have  been 
led  to  visit  Spain  because  he  could  count  upon 
the  friendly  reception  of  his  compatriots  there. 
Taragon,  moreover,  was  called  the  ''Jew  City" 
long  before  the  invasion  of  the  Saracens.  These 
colonies  became  still  more  numerous  and  pop- 
ulous after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by 
Titus ;  and  so  the  whole  known  world  of  those 
days  was  encompassed  by  their  settlements. 
Through  the  many  merchants  travelling  about, 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  205 

they  remained  in  unintermpted  intercourse 
among  each  other,  and  they  distributed  among 
their  brethren  spiritual  goods  as  readily  as 
they  did  their  worldly  goods ;  while  the  other 
nations  gradually  became  more  and  more  iso- 
lated, and  were  cut  off  from  the  few  last  sources 
of  spiritual  life  which  were  in  themselves  im- 
poverished. The  Romance  peoples  degen- 
erated, the  Germanic  races  remained  for  a 
long  time  in  a  state  of  savagery,  and  thus  the 
dark  Middle  Ages  grew  up,  which  the  Jews 
never  experienced.  They,  on  the  contrary, 
remained  in  constant  communication  with  the 
centres  of  their  spiritual  life,  at  whatever  place 
these  might  for  the  time  have  flourished,  and 
they  turned  thither  for  counsel  and  enlighten- 
ment whenever  they  were  not  able  to  find  the 
proper  decision  in  some  important  case. 

The  second  cause  which  contributed  to  the 
intellectual  development  of  Judaism  were  these 
very  intellectual  centres — namely,  the  schools 
which  were  founded  long  before  our  era  under 
Simon  Ben  Schetach,  and  were  opened  to  all 
young  men  after  their  sixteenth  year  (with 
compulsory  attendance)  in  all  larger  cities,  un- 
der Salome  Alexendra  (79-70),  for  the  study 
of  Scripture  and  law.     There  already  existed 


206  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

schools  of  individual  famous  erudites  in  Jeru- 
salem and  other  cities  of  Judaea,  as  well  as 
in  Egypt  at  Alexandria.  How  highly  these 
schools  were  esteemed  by  the  Jews  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  principal  one  was  called 
"Kallah/'  the  bride.  The  best  pupil  of  Hillel, 
Jochanan  Ben  Sakkai,  in  wise  anticipation  of 
the  future,  escaped  from  the  besieged  Jerusa- 
lem to  Vespasian,  and  gained  permission  from 
him  to  form  a  school  at  Jabneh  (Jamnia). 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  series  of 
similar  institutions,  which  finally  spread  over 
all  countries,  many  of  which  became  famous 
for  science,  while  several  furnished  the  foun- 
dations for  Christian  academies.  In  Jabneh 
the  beginning  of  the  elaboration  of  the  Talmud 
(Mishna  and  Gemara)  was  begun. 

Schleiden  shows  how  the  Talmud  was  really 
the  repository  for  all  their  science  and  learn- 
ing, including  law  and  ethics,  and  reacting 
upon  their  practical  life,  thus  being  a  mirror 
of  their  national  and  intellectual  existence. 
He  then  follows  up  the  spread  of  these  East- 
ern schools,  and  mentions  some  of  the  great 
men  who  founded  them.  In  Babylon  (where 
at  Pumbadita,  for  instance,  there  were  twelve 
hundred  students);  Sura, in  Arabia,  where  the 


INFLUENCE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES    207 

Jews  were  called  '*  the  people  of  letters  "  ( Alil' 
111  Kitab).  Ill  a  foot-note  lie  adds  that  one 
could  even  in  our  days  call  them  so ;  and  he 
quotes  from  the  statistics  of  Prussia  in  1875 
with  regard  to  the  proportion  of  those  w^ho 
could  not  read  or  write  as  follows : 


Males. 

Females. 

Jews  .  . 

3.9  per  ct. 

5.8  per  ct. 

Protestants  . 

,     6.6       " 

11.4      " 

Catholics  .  . 

15.1       '' 

21.8      " 

The  principal  schools  often  had  to  change 
places,  owing  to  persecution,  and  Schleiden 
adds  the  following  note  : 

"  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  Jews  were 
in  all  countries  only  persecuted  by  morally 
base  or  intellectually  degraded  princes,  but 
were  protected  and  advanced  by  rulers  of  su- 
perior mental  and  moral  quality.  With  the 
Christians  we  find  the  exact  contrary  down  to 
A.D.  1200." 

After  commenting  upon  the  schools  of  Ti- 
berias and  Jathrib,  he  maintains  that  what  is 
best  in  the  Koran  came  from  the  Jews.  lie 
then  turns  to  the  rise  of  Judaism  in  the  West. 

In  all  larger  places  of  Spain,  France,  and 


208  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Italy  there  were  founded  in  rapid  succession 
schools  and  academies,  many  of  which  soon  ac- 
quired so  great  a  reputation  that  they  often 
attracted  Christians  and  even  members  of  the 
clergy  who  were  nearly  devoid  of  opportuni- 
ties for  higher  intellectual  education.  At  the 
same  time  there  was  a  rise  of  Jewish  schools 
under  Arab  rule  at  Bagdad,  Kairuan  (North 
Africa),  and  Neru  (Chorassan).  At  an  early 
date  there  were  flourishing  schools  at  Toledo, 
Granada,  Cordova  in  Spain  ;  atLunel,  Beziers, 
Beaucaire,  and  ISTarbonnein  France;  at  Mode- 
na,  Mantua,  Padua,  Genoa,  Naples,  Amalfi, 
Ben  even  to,  and  Bome  in  Italy,  as  well  as  in 
innumerable  other  cities.  The  foundation  of 
the  medical  school  of  Montpellier  was  due 
to  the  Jews,  and  they  were  also  chiefly  con- 
cerned in  the  establishment  of  the  Salerni- 
tan  school.  The  rise  of  the  Western  schools, 
which  soon  became  the  equals  of  those  in  the 
East,  and  finally  eclipsed  them,  had  as  a  result 
the  extinction  of  the  last  traces  of  an  outer 
centralization  of  Judaism.  From  this  time  on 
the  Jews  were  only  united  by  their  pure  mon- 
otheism, their  sacred  writ,  and  their  moral  laws. 
The  distinction  between  teacher  and  people  was 
almost  completely  done  away  with,  owing  to 


INFLUENCE    IN   THE    MIDDLE    AGES  209 

the  high  state  of  culture  to  wliich  the  people 
attained.  The  teacher  was  heric'eforth  only  a 
teacher,  and  nothing  more ;  and  it  is  thus  that 
this  period,  beginning  about  the  tenth  century, 
is  simply  called  the  Rabbinic  period. 

I  have  only  touched  upon  the  main  points. 
In  reality  there  were  innumerable  schools  of 
this  kind ;  for  every  town  of  any  importance 
had  one  of  them,  sometimes  several.  The 
number  of  students  who  flocked  from  great 
distances  to  liear  some  famous  teacher  was 
often  above  two  thousand.  And  it  was  not 
customary  to  pay  a  fee  for  this  teaching;  for 
the  teachers  either  lived  on  their  own  fortune, 
or,  not  infrequently,  on  the  proceeds  of  some 
definite  trade  wliich  they  followed.  It  was  a 
very  rare  occurrence  that  a  quite  destitute  but 
distinguished  teacher  allowed  himself  to  be 
paid  by  his  pupils.  But  it  happened  very  fre- 
quently that  the  teachers  partially  and  even 
entirely  supported  their  pupils. 

The  third  cause  which  favored  the  intellect- 
ual growth  of  the  Jews  was  their  linguistic 
versatility,  for  which  they  appear  to  have  had  a 
natural  predisposition.  Even  before  our  era 
there  were  many  Jews  who  spoke  Hebrew  and 
Greek,  especially  at  Alexandria,  and  to  this 
u 


210  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Latin  was  added  during  the  Eoinan  suprem- 
acy. Subsequently  they  learned  Syriac,  then 
Arabic ;  and  finally  Spanish,  French,  and  Ger- 
man were  added  to  these.  In  the  whole  of  the 
Middle  Ages  there  were  but  few  Jews,  and 
those  of  the  lowest  class,  who  did  not  under- 
stand at  least  two  languages ;  and  there  are 
preserved  to  us  names  of  many  men  who  were 
thorough  masters  of  from  five  to  seven. 

The  religion  of  the  Jews  consists  simply  in 
the  faith  in  a  single  Deity,  conceived  in  a 
purely  spiritual  manner,  and  to  this  was  joined 
the  duty  to  lead  a  moral  life  as  the  essential 
road  to  salvation,  and  as  the  true  form  of 
worship.  And  as  this  pure  monotheism  does 
not  militate  against  reason  or  thought,  there 
were  no  futile  quarrels  nor  dogmas,  and  noth- 
ing to  stand  in  the  way  of  advancing  re- 
search. On  the  other  hand,  their  highly  dcr 
veloped  system  of  ethics,  by  which  the  rela- 
tion of  man  to  man  was  ordered,  as  well  as 
their  feasts  founded  upon  historical  events, 
and  the  fact  that  these  had  to  be  accurately 
fixed  in  their  cycles,  led  up  to  the  very  gates 
of  science.  Their  ethics  also  included  the  rules 
of  conduct  towards  the  sick  and  suffering. 
They  were  led  to  philology  and  critical  exe- 


INFLUENCE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES    211 

gesis  by  the  fact  that  their  laws  were  writ- 
ten in  ancient  Hebrew,  a  language  not  easily 
nnderstood  in  later  times;  their  contents  fa- 
vored the  study  of  jurisprudence ;  while  the 
fixing  of  the  dates  of  festivals  encouraged  the 
study  of  astronomy,  and  hence  mathematics. 
Every  new  development  of  their  actual  life, 
every  new  condition  to  which  their  dispersion 
forced  them  to  adapt  themselves,  demanded 
an  enlargement  and  a  development  of  their 
laws,  even  those  that  w^ere  originally  meant  for 
definite  and  simple  conditions  of  life.  And, 
thus  stimulated  on  all  sides,  they  soon  arrived 
at  the  demand  for  the  establishment  of  a  logi- 
cal connection  and  unity  of  general  principles 
for  all  this  variety,  and  even  to  philosophy  as 
the  luminous  centre  of  all  intellectual  work. 

Another  fortunate  circumstance  must  be 
added  to  this:  as  they  were  free  from  dogmas, 
they  did  not  stand  in  need  of  a  caste  of  23riests. 
The  ceremonies  and  sacrifices  at  the  Temple  of 
Jerusalem  w^ere  presided  over  by  priests,  but 
they  had  no  influence  upon  the  faith  itself. 
Moreover,  the  prophets  had  lowered  the  value 
of  sacrificial  cult  us,  and  with  the  destruction  of 
the  second  temple  it  ceased  of  itself.  Thus 
the  Jews  were  entirely  free  from  all  clerical 


212  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

influence  in  their  intellectual  development 
and  in  their  research.  The  purity  of  their 
faith  was  protected  by  the  teachers,  nay,  by  the 
whole  people,  which  would  surrender  its  exist- 
ence in  surrendering  its  faith  in  the  one  God. 

The  task  of  elaborating  the  whole  intel- 
lectual history  of  the  Jews  since  Alexandria, 
which  would  fill  many  volumes,  is  a  very  at- 
tractive one.  This,  it  appears  to  me,  is  the 
more  called  for,  as  all  our  historical  works 
completely  ignore  the  Jews  the  moment  they 
can  no  longer  be  struck  at  with  the  sword. 
But  I  must  remain  content  with  a  sketch 
wdiich  proves  that  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Jews 
continued  in  full  vitality  through  the  whole  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  that  during  the  revival  of 
letters  and  learning  their  work  contributed  es- 
sentially to  the  possibility  of  such  a  renaissance. 

Schleiden  then  gives  a  short  sketch  of  the 
nature  of  the  Talmud.  He  refers  to  the  essay 
of  E.  Deutsch  on  this  subject,  which  he  con- 
siders to  give  the  clearest  exposition  of  its 
main  features. 

The  Talmud  {''  study,"  from  Icwiad,  to  learn) 
was  verbally  collected  after  Esra,  indited  in 
parts  for  about  eight  centuries  (down  to  the 
sixth  century),  and  then  written  out  complete- 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES         213 

]y.  In  it  are  contained  all  the  spiritnal  aspira- 
tions of  the  Jews  in  the  most  diversified  di- 
rections and  towards  the  most  varied  objects. 
It  might  best  be  called  a  chronicle  of  the  civ- 
ilization of  the  Jews  during  this  period.  It  is 
only  beginning  to  have  the  proper  treatment 
and  to  be  made  accessible  to  laymen. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  in  this  continuous 
literary  effort  for  more  than  two  thousand 
years  we  meet  with  vagaries,  which  are  inevi- 
table in  the  work  of  man.  But  as  Benjamin 
Ben  Mose  said,  a  thousand  years  ago,  ^'To 
carry  on  research  is  a  duty;  to  make  mistakes 
is  no  sin."  As  early  as  the  eighth  century 
there  was  opposition  to  the  Talmud,  Anan 
Ben  David  held  up  one-sidedly  the  Old  Testa- 
ment against  the  Talmud,  and  created  the  sect 
of  Karseans  as  opposed  to  Kabbinites,  w^ho 
maintained  the  claims  of  the  Talmud.  Such 
differences  occurred  in  later  times,  even  down  to 
our  own  days.  But  physical  force,  fortunately 
for  them,  could  never  enter  into  their  dispute. 

The  bloodless  battle  for  truth  was  only 
fought  out  in  the  schools,  and  whoever  had 
her  on  his  side  sooner  or  later  proved  victori- 
ous; and  thus  w^hat  w^as  exaggerated  or  one- 
sided was  sure  to  be  defeated  in  the  long-run. 


214  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

while  tlie  grains  of  truth  inlierent  even  in  the 
exaggeration  were  assimilated  and  could  act  in 
a  fructifying  manner. 

In  the  parts  of  the  Talmud  called  the  Ha- 
gada,  in  which  individual  rabbis  commented 
upon  the  serious  injunctions  and  thoughts  of 
the  main  body  of  the  work  in  the  form  of 
philosophical  essays  or  in  poetic  episodes,  in 
parables  or  stories,  there  are,  without  doubt, 
excrescences  disfigured  by  violent  imagination 
and  vindictive -hatred.  But  these  individual 
passages  are  the  resnlt  of  the  excitement  caused 
by  the  cruelties  of  the  time,  for  which  only  too 
often  there  was  abundance  of  cause.  And  these 
portions  of  the  Talmud  are  only  side  issues, 
and  in  no  way  render  the  spirit  of  the  whole. 

It  is  natural  that  the  intellectual  worlv  of 
the  Jewish  student  was  connected  in  the  first 
instance  with  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Old 
Testament.  To  understand  and  to  appreciate 
these  fully  was  the  first  task. 

Most  Christians  are  inclined  to  believe  that 
so-called  Biblical  criticism  is  their  domain  and 
a  product  of  these  latter  days.  If  they  look 
back  fifteen  hundred  years  they  approach 
nearer  to  the  cradle  of  this  branch  of  science. 
In  the  middle  of  the  third  century  Simon  Ben 


INFLUENCE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES    215 

Lakisli  decided  that  Job  had  never  lived,  but 
that  he  was  the  product  of  a  noble  poem,  and 
that  the  names  of  angels  were  borrowed  by 
the  Jews  from  a  foreign  people  while  they 
were  in  exile.  Still  more  important  in  this 
direction  was  the  work  of  Saadia  in  the  ninth 
century.  He  placed  reason  above  the  Talmud 
and  the  Bible,  and  endeavored  to  explain  away 
many  miracles  in  the  Bible,  e.g.,  the  speaking 
snake  in  Paradise,  Balaam's  ass,  etc.  Saadia 
translated  the  Old  Testament  into  Arabic,  the 
most  widely-spread  language  of  his  time. 

Saadia's  contemporary,  Chiwi  of  Balk,  ap- 
plied absolutely  rationalistic  methods  to  the 
criticism  of  Scripture.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  eleventh  century  Samuel  Ben  Chofni  de- 
clared the  apparition  of  the  Witch  of  Endor 
and  the  speech  of  Balaam's  ass  to  be  mere 
hallucinations.  Jonah  Marin  us  (also  called 
Abulwalid)  worked  in  the  same  spirit.  He 
raised  Biblical  criticism  to  an  independent  sci- 
ence. About  the  same  time  there  lived  Ben 
Jasus  (Jizchaki),  who  proved  that  the  portion 
of  the  first  book  of  Moses  dealing  with  the 
Idumsean  kings  could  not  be  ascribed  to  Moses, 
nay,  could  not  have  originated  in  his  time. 
About   the   middle   of   the   twelfth    century 


216  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Abraham  Ibn  Esra  published  a  critical  com- 
mentary on  Isaiah,  and  even  then  pointed  out 
the  spurious  character  of  the  twenty-third 
chapter,  which  is  now  universally  admitted. 

In  the  exegesis  of  the  Old  Testament  the 
Jews  were  no  less  prominent.  The  translation 
of  Saadia  may  already  be  considered  as  con- 
taining exegesis;  but  even  before  him  a  sect 
of  the  Karseans  had  done  important  work  in 
this  direction.  Ehabanus  Maurus,  the  learned 
Abbot  of  Fulda,  in  the  eighth  century,  ac- 
knowledges in  the  preface  to  his  commentary 
on  the  Bible  that  he  has  learned  much  from 
the  Jews  wuth  reo;ard  to  exef>:esis.  The  Ka- 
rsean  Jews  of  Kairo  still  possess  a  Bible  copied 
by  Eabbi  Aaron  Ben  Mose  Ben  Asher,  and- 
corrected  according  to  Masoretan  rules.  An 
excellent  commentary  on  the  Bible  and  the 
Talmud,  by  Salomon  Jizchaki  (commonly 
known  as  Eashi),  exists  in  several  translations, 
and  has  been  used  by  Christian  divines. 

The  commentaries  to  the  Talmud  are  still 
more  numerous.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
second  century  of  our  era,  through  the  whole 
of  the  Middle  Ages  down  to  our  time,  there  is 
no  century  in  which  some  great  man  has  not 
produced  some  work  on  this  subject.    I  omit 


•      INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES         217 

Schleiden's  account  of  tlie  prominent  workers 
in  this  field. 

As  has  been  said,  the  Jews  appear  to  have 
an  innate  talent  for  languages.  No  doubt 
their  dispersion  among  so  many  different  na- 
tionalities contributed  to  this.  But  the  moral 
earnestness  witli  which  they  clung  to  their 
ethical  and  religious  convictions  was  the  most 
important  factor,  leading  them  to  exert  their 
diligence  and  ingenuity  in  the  study  of  the 
Oriental  languages  in  which  the  fundamental 
principles  of  their  moral  and  religious  life  are 
embedded,  and  to  hand  these  down  to  their 
successors.  If  this  had  not  been  so,  we  of 
modern  times  might  have  stood  before  the 
Hebrew  language  as  much  puzzled  as  we 
liave  been  in  approaching  hieroglyphics.  It 
is  true  that  Origenes,  and  after  him,  espe- 
cially, Jerome,  studied  Hebrew  with  rabbis 
in  order  to  understand  the  Old  Testament; 
but  with  these  all  deeper  and  more  serious 
study  of  Hebrew  ceases  among  the  Christian 
clergy.  They  remained  content  with  the  mis- 
erable Latin  translation,  and  they  could  often 
not  read  this  with  complete  understanding. 

The  foundations  of  the  deeper  study  of  lan- 
guage which  we  call  linguistics  were  laid  by 


218  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

the  Jews  nearly  twelve  hundred  years  ago. 
Juda  Ben  Koreish  proved  as  early  as  the 
time  of  Saadia  that  Hebrew,  Arabic,  and 
Chaldean  were  all  three  branches  of  the 
same  linguistic  root,  the  same  in  all  essential 
features.  The  etymological  Hebrew  diction- 
ary of  Menahem  Ben  Saruc  was  completed 
and  corrected  in  many  points  by  Dnnash  Ben 
Labrat.  Juda  Chajng  (Abu  Sakaria  Jachia) 
recognized  the  principle  of  the  three  letters 
for  all  Hebrew  roots.  The  original  Hebrew 
script  was  wanting  in  all  signs  for  definite 
vowels.  It  was  thus  diflBcult  to  read,  and  the 
people  were  beginning  to  become  estranged 
from  it.  After  a.d.  550,  learned  men  in  Assyria 
invented  a  system  of  vowel  symbols,  and  this 
system  was  developed  in  the  seventh  century 
by  Mocha  and  his  son  Moses,  and  was  called  the 
younger  Tiberiensian  system,  which  is  now  in 
general  use.  The  text  of  the  Bible  written 
according  to  these  principles  by  Moses  and 
Aaron  Ben  Asher  have  formed  the  basis  for 
all  subsequent  study  of  the  Hebrew  text  of 
the  Old  Testament. 

In  the  eleventh  century,  Marinus  (Abulwa- 
lid  Ibn  Ganach)  wrote  a  complete  Hebrew 
grammar  and  dictionary  which  formed  a  basis 


INFLUENCE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES    219 

for  all  subsequent  study,  and  are  still  of  great 
value.  He  was  the  first  who  raised  exegesis 
to  the  rank  of  a  true  science.  After  him 
Nathan  Ben  Jecliiel  wrote  a  dictionary  to  the 
Talmud,  which  is  used  even  now.  The  Jews 
in  those  days  wrote  their  books  in  Arabic  as 
frequently  as  they  did  in  Hebrew,  but  those 
who  lived  in  Christian  countries  always  trans- 
lated the  Arabic  works  into  Hebrew.  Samuel 
Halevi  Ibn  Nagrela  (993-1055)  knew  He- 
brew, Chaldean,  Arabic,  Barb,  Castilian,  and 
Latin.  As  early  as  the  time  of  the  Visigoths 
the  Jews  wrote  treatises  against  Christianity 
in  clever  Latin,  and  they  were  justified  in  their 
contempt  of  the  coarse  and  ignorant  Christians 
who  lived  under  the  Moors  (Muzarabs),  who 
learned  Arabic  but  soon  forgot  their  Latin,  and 
with  it  their  whole  religion.  In  the  thirteenth 
century  the  famous  Levi  Ben  Gerson  (Ralbag) 
wrote  a  book  called  The  Battles  of  the  Lorcl^ 
in  which  there  occurs  a  very  ingenious  disqui- 
sition on  the  origin  of  language.  Moses  Ben 
Esra  spoke  Hebrew,  Arabic,  Persian,  Greek, 
and  Spanish.  To  cut  short  this  catalogue  of 
Jewish  philologists,  I  would  close  it  by  men- 
tioning the  families  of  the  Kimclii,  Tibbon,  and 
Kalonymos,  who  for  several  generations  were 


220  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

famous  as  philologists  and  translators.  We 
still  possess  a  very  valuable  work  containing  a 
grammar  and  a  lexicon  of  David  Kimclii,  and 
another  grammar  by  Moses  Kimchi. 

If  one  studies  the  history  'of  the  Reforma- 
tion and  realizes  how  absolutely  necessary  it 
was  to  recall  into  life  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  whole  Bible  in  the  original  text,  one 
will  be  forced  to  say :  "  Without  Hebrew  no 
Reformation,  and  without  Jews  no  Hebrew; 
for  they  were  the  only  teachers  of  this  lan- 
guage." 

Schleiden  also  casts  a  rapid  glance  at  the 
Jewish  Hellenic  literature  of  Alexandria.  He 
points  to  the  writings  of  Aristeas,  of  Philo,  to 
the  elaboration  of  the  third  book  of  the  Mac- 
cabees, and  the  book  of  Wisdom  about  the 
first  half  of  the  first  century  a.d.;  and,  before 
this,  the  Jew^ish  Sibyl,  Pseudo-Phokylides,  the 
book  of  Esther,  Bel  and  the  Dragon  of  Ba]}el, 
as  well  as  the  letters  of  Jeremiah.  Quite  re- 
cently numerous  and  important  additions  have 
been  made  to  this  literature  in  the  discovery 
of  manuscripts  belonging  to  this  period. 

Schleiden  then  turns  his  attention  to  the 
influence  which  these  early  schools  had  upon 
the  study  of  philosophy.     In  the  second  cen-  ^ 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  221 

tnry  Eabbi  Me'ir  is  occuj^ied  with  plulosoplii- 
cal  work,  and  is  in  close  intercourse  w^itli  the 
Neoplatonic  j)hilosopherNamenios.  As  early 
as  the  third  century  a.d.,  Kabbi  Simlai  made 
the  first  attempt  to  treat  the  Agada  philosopli- 
ically.  In  the  ninth  century,  Saadia  Ben  Jo- 
seph, chief  of  the  school  of  Sura,  began  an 
attempt  to  give  a  pliilosophical  foundation  to 
the  religion  of  the  Jews.  In  his  systematic 
w^ork,  Belief  and  Dogma  {Emiinot  we  Deot)^ 
he  considers  reason  to  be  the  judge  of  Script- 
ure and  the  Talmud,  and  holds  Judaism  to  be 
only  a  confirmation  of  rationalism  revealed 
by  God  in  order  to  shorten  the  road  to  truth 
for  those  less  gifted.  He  was  opposed  to  the 
teleological  view  because  the  human  conception 
of  purpose  could  not  be  applied  to  God.  He 
demanded  that  the  words  of  Scripture  should 
always  be  construed  in  their  natural  sense,  in  so 
far  as  they  do  not  contradict  perceptible  facts 
or  reason,  and  in  so  far  as  they  do  not  con- 
tradict one  another.  The  learned  Arabs  held 
liis  w^ork  in  high  esteem,  and  his  principles  are 
still  mentioned  by  Jewish  students  in  our  day. 
Among  the  last  teachers  of  the  school  of 
Pumbadita,  Rabbi  Hai  is  distinguished.  He 
was    a    decided    opponent    of    all    mysticism 


222  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

and  superstition,  all  craving  for  miracles  and 
magic.  All  this  he  considered  pure  invention 
and  deception,  and,  if  attempted  in  the  name 
of  God,  sacrilege.  With  his  free  spirit  lie 
often  took  counsel  concerning  certain  passages 
in  Scripture  with  the  learned  Mar  Elia  I.,  the 
wise  Catholicus  of  the  Eastern  Christians  of 
Bagdad.  When  some  rabbis  reproached  him 
with  this,  he  answered :  "According  to  the  Tal- 
mud a  Jew  is  bound  to  accept  truth  from 
everybody." 

In  the  eleventh  century  the  philosophical 
works  of  tlie  poets  Gabirol  and  Yehuda  Een 
Halevi  were  also  of  interest;  the  former  was, 
even  in  liis  youth,  acquainted  with  Socrates, 
Plato,  Aristotle,  the  Neoplatonic  and  Arabian 
philosophers.  Led  by  these  he  became  the 
first  independent  thinker  in  Europe,  since 
Justinian's  brutality  had  caused  the  philosoph- 
ical schools  of  Athens  to  be  closed,  and  Sco- 
tus  Erigena  (850)  was  as  good  as  forgotten. 
His  chief  work  was  Mekor  Chajim  {The  Source 
of  Life).  It  was  written  in  Arabic,  was  then 
translated  into  Latin  by  a  Christian  priest 
under  the  wrong  name  of  Aviceh'on,  and  in 
later  times  translated  into  Hebrew  by  a  Jew. 
Many  were  indebted  to  this  book  for  the  wis- 


INFLUENCE    IN   THE    MIDDLE    AGES  223 

dom  wliicli  they  extracted  from  it,  so  Will- 
iam of  Anvergne,  Albertus  Magnus,  Thomas 
Aquinas,  and  Duns  Scotus. 

The  acme  of  the  philosophical  development 
is  reached  in  the  twelfth  century.  At  this 
point  Schleiden  mentions  the  Sohar,  and  main- 
tains that  the  common  view  of  the  Kabbala  is 
a  mistaken  one,  inasmuch  as  only  its  degener- 
ate portions  have  been  considered.  The  aim 
of  the  mediseval  Christian  Church,  especially 
of  scholastic  philosophy,  was  a  hopeless  strug- 
gle to  realize  the  dream  of  the  ''  God-man  " : 
to  amalgamate,  nay,  to  identify,  the  pure 
spiritualism  of  religious  Hebraism  with  the 
pure  sensuousness  of  religious  Hellenism.  The 
contagion  of  this  tendency  also  reached  Juda- 
ism in  that  school  which  endeavored  to  grasp 
the  sensuous  language  of  the  prophets  in 
their  literary  significance,  and  so  anthromor- 
phize  God.  This  took  place  in  the  Kabba- 
la. The  Sohar,  belonging  to  this  class,  and 
forming  its  chief  work,  gives  quite  a  dif- 
ferent idea  from  the  one  generally  current. 
Schleiden  refers  to  Frank's  w^ork.  La  Kab- 
hale^  as  giving  a  just  view.  The  unity  and 
immaterial  character  of  God,  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  and  freedom  of  the  will,  control 


224  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

the  whole  of  this  work  and  give  it  a  higher 
significance. 

In  the  same  century  Joseph  Ibn  Zadic 
wrote  a  system  of  logic.  Abraham  Ibn  Dand 
also  published  about  this  time  his  work  enti- 
tled The  Highest  Faith^  the  burden  of  which 
maybe  summarized  in  the  following  sentence: 
"  The  ultimate  purpose  of  all  philosophical  tlie- 
ory  is  the  practical  realization  of  moral  aims, 
and  in  this  consists  Judaism."  No  philosophy 
has  ever  expressed  a  higher  aim.  It  is  exactly 
the  same  as  what  the  philosopher  Fries  put 
seven  hundred  years  later  into  the  technical 
words,  ''  The  Primate  of  Practical  Keason." 

May  this  suffice,  though  a  hundred  names 
of  other  philosophers  must  be  omitted.  I 
would  now  turn  to  one  man,  the  greatest 
w^hom  the  whole  of  Europe  can  show  in  this 
century — namely,  Maimonides.  Ibn  Amran 
Musa  Ben  Abdallah,  or  Moses  Ben  Maimun 
(1135-1204:),  is  only  known  imperfectly,  as  his 
life-history  is  full  of  legends.  But  so  much  we 
do  know,  that  in  his  whole  life  he  was  pen- 
etrated with  the  purest  morality  and  by  the 
highest  nobility  of  soul.  His  father,  a  man  of 
high  position  in  Cordova,  was  a  mathemati- 
cian, astronomer,  and  Talmudic  student,  and 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  225 

inspired  liis  son  with  an  entlinsiasm  for  science 
at  an  early  date.  Driven  out  of  their  home 
by  the  Ahnohads,  the  family  led  for  a  long 
time  a  homeless  life.  Maimonides  learned 
from  his  father  all  that  he  could  teach  him, 
while  Mohammedan  teachers  introduced  him 
into  the  natural  sciences  and  the  study  of 
medicine.  The  view  that  he  w^as  a  pupil  of 
Averroes  has  long  since  been  shown  to  be 
erroneous.  Maimonides  stood  completely  on 
the  ground  of  Judaism  as  w^ell  as  on  that  of 
the  Greeks.  If  anything,  he  w^^s  a  follower 
of  Aristotle,  though  quite  independent  and 
often  differing  from  him.  He  also  studied 
Socrates,  Xenophon,  and  Plato ;  furthermore, 
the  Stoics,  the  peripatetic  Alexander  of  Aph- 
rodisias,  and  the  eclectic  Themistius.  Of 
course,  he  was  limited  by  the  age  in  which  he 
lived,  his  surroundings,  and  the  oppression  to 
which  the  Jews  at  that  time  were  subjected. 
He  cannot  be  reproached  w^ith  this,  as  no  one 
can  emancipate  himself  from  such  influence ; 
but  he  stands  high  above  many  rabbis  wdien 
he  says,  "  They  find  in  the  Holy  Scripture  a 
hundred  things  of  w^hich  Scripture  has  never 
dreamt."  His  great  philosophical  work  is 
called  More  Ilanebuchim  {Guide  of  the  Err- 

15 


226  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

ing).  He  himself  says  concerning  it :  "  In 
short,  I  am  thus  made,  tliat  if  a  thonglit 
fills  me,  and  I  can  only  express  it  in  such  a 
form  that  it  satisfies  and  advances  but  one 
thoughtful  man  among  ten  thousand,  while  it 
may  prove  unbearable  to  the  great  mass  of 
the  people,  I  will  pronounce  boldly  and  openly 
a  word  that  brings  light  to  the  reasonable, 
though  the  blame  of  the  unreasonable  crowd 
be  heaped  upon  me."  And  he  has  enlight- 
ened the  thoughtful  and  has  exerted  a  pow- 
erful infiuence  upon  the  development  of  plii- 
losophy.  Scaliger  says :  "  The  Guide  of  the 
Erring  can  never  be  praised  sufiiciently." 
Casaubonus  says  of  it :  "  What  belongs  to 
religion  he  treats  religiously,  the  philosophi- 
cal philosophically,  and  the  divine  divinely." 
This  is  the  estimate  which  the  ao:e  followinof 
his  own  placed  upon  him.  The  motto,  as  it 
were,  of  his  work  was :  ''  Man  is  not  to  be  led 
in  his  actions  by  mere  authority.  Never  turn 
your  back  upon  your  better  knowledge ;  for 
have  we  not  our  eyes  in  front,  and  not  behind  ?" 
In  another  passage  he  says  :  ''The  aim  of  relig- 
ion is  to  learn  to  think  and  to  act  in  harmony 
with  reason,  in  order  to  approach  to  perfec- 
tion."    In  both  respects  he  stands  high  above 


INFLUENCE    IN   THE    MIDDLE    AGES  227 

Christian  scliolastic  philosopliy,  which  more- 
over rests  upon  his  foundations.  His  work 
was  translated  many  times  into  Latin,  German, 
Spanish,  English,  etc.  Joel  has  shown  how  de- 
pendent even  Spinoza  was  upon  Maimonides. 
I  must  select  two  philosophers  from  the 
period  succeeding  Maimonides.  First,  Levi 
Ben  Gerson,  w^ho  is  an  ardent  admirer  and 
a  warm  defender  of  the  philosophy  of  Mai- 
monides, and  must  be  looked  upon  as  his 
successor.  His  work,  Milchamoth^  attracted 
great  attention,  not  only  among  the  Jews,  but 
among  men  like  Pico  of  Merandola,  Reuchlin, 
and  Keppler.  The  other  is  Chasdai  Crescas, 
who  in  many  ways  was  a  just  opponent  of 
Maimonides ;  but  is  especially  remarkable  be- 
cause he  was  the  first  to  combat  systematically 
the  philosophy  of  Aristotle  and  to  subject 
Aristotle's  metaphysical  and  physical  views  to 
a  careful  critical  examination.  He  did  this 
in  his  book  Or  Adonai  {The  Light  of  God)^ 
which  appeared  in  1410,  long  before  Christian 
students  dared  to  oppose  the  prevailing  Aris- 
totelian views.  Thus  with  regard  to  philoso- 
phy, one  might  also  say :  Without  Judaism 
no  scholastics  and  no  advance,  and  therefore 
no  development  in  philosophy. 


228  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Before  closing  this  survey  of  their  pliilo- 
sophical  work,  I  must  mention  Isaac  Ben 
Moses  Halevy  (Prophiat  Duran),  wlio  sub- 
jected Christian  dogmas  to  close  criticism  in 
a  series  of  letters  addressed  to  a  converted 
Jew. 

I  now  turn  to  a  special  branch  of  philoso- 
phy (ethics),  which  lield  a  high  position  in 
Judaism,  if  only  because  of  the  fact  that, 
since  the  destruction  of  their  church-services 
in  Jerusalem,  there  only  remained  to  them 
this  form  of  serving  God,  which  they  had 
already  practised  from  the  earliest  time. 

I  must  first  draw  attention  to  one  point 
which  unites  ethics  to  the  philosophy  of  re- 
ligion— namely,  tolerance.  Genuine  tolerance 
is  the  realization  of  one's  own  nobility  of  soul, 
which  leads  one  to  treat  one's  fellow-man  al- 
ways and  everywhere,  without  regard  to  differ- 
ing beliefs,  humanely  and  with  kindness.  It 
is  sufficiently  well  known  that  in  this  respect 
Cliristians  did  not  show  themselves  worthy  of 
praise  down  to  our  own  days  ;  and  this  at  once 
does  away  with  the  assertion  that  the  com- 
mandment of  universal  charity  is  peculiar  to 
Christianity.  With  the  Jews  we  find  the  ex- 
act contrary.     Tliey  nev^er  had  the  greed  of 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  229 

proselytizing,  and  made  conversion  into  their 
own  faith  as  difficult  as  possible.  Nay,  a 
learned  rabbi  went  so  far  as  to  express  "  doubt 
of  every  proselyte  even  down  to  the  tenth  gen- 
eration." Eabbi  Nachmani,  who  lived  in  the 
fourth  century,  had  the  motto,  "  Live  at  peace 
with  thy  brothers  and  relations,  with  all  the 
world,  even  with  the  heathens."  And  since 
his  time  the  Jews  recognize  no  difference  be- 
tween the  orthodox  and  the  heterodox,  and 
only  the  rabbis  of  a  few  schools  appeared  to 
assert  their  orthodoxy — e.  g.,  against  Maimon- 
ides,  through  a  ban  which  has  long  since  be- 
come powerless.  The  Jews,  far  from  avoid- 
ing intercourse  with  heathens  and  Christians, 
had  social  communion  with  them ;  as,  for  in- 
stance, in  common  meals,  until  all  this  was 
forbidden  by  Christian  priests.  In  the  tenth 
century  an  anonymous  work  appeared  in 
which  kindness,  gentleness,  and  justice  against 
those  of  other  beliefs  are  taught,  with  the 
severest  threats  against  those  who  sin  against 
it.  At  the  very  time  when  in  Spain,  France, 
and  Germany  the  most  iniquitous  persecu- 
tion raged  against  the  Jews,  a  French  Jew, 
Yehuda  Sir  Leon  Ben  Isaac  (Ha  Chasid,  the 
"  pious  one  "),  wrote  a  guide  to  higher  relig- 


230  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

ions  life,  in  which  he  says:  "  Tliou  shalt  act 
rigliteously  always  towards  the  Christians  as 
well  as  towards  those  of  thine  own  faith.  If 
they  have  made  a  mistake  to  their  own  disad- 
vantage, one  must  point  it  out  to  them.  If  a 
Jew  is  collector  of  taxes,  he  is  not  to  exact  more 
from  the  Christian  than  from  the  Jew.  The 
Jew  is  not  to  use  an  untrue  pretext  against 
the  Christian,  and  he  is  not  even  to  say  to  an 
unsafe  borrower  that  he  has  no  money.  One 
is  to  take  nothing  from  the  Christians,  for 
God  helps  those  who  are  oppressed,"  etc.  I 
should  think  this  would  already  be  enough  to 
make  ridiculous  the  mass  of  prejudice  against 
the  Jews.  Schleiden  here  quotes  as  a  foot- 
note the  principle,  publicly  expressed  by  the 
Christian  Church  of  those  days :  ''  One  need 
not  keep  one's  word  to  a  heretic." 

If  we  enter  more  directly  into  their  ethics, 
I  would  first  say  that  obedience  to  the  moral 
law  was  the  foremost  and  almost  the  only  duty 
towards  God,  the  religious  service  proper ;  and 
if  we  leave  aside  the  changing  opinions  of  in- 
dividuals, the  principle  of  the  moral  law  for 
the  Jew  is  the  striving  for  perfection  Avliich 
must  be  satisfied — surely  the  purest  and  most 
unselfish  motive.      As  morality  was  a  relig- 


INFLUENCE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES    231 

ions  duty  to  the  Jew,  there  can  exist  among 
them  no  teacher  who  does  not  touch  upon 
questions  of  ethics  and  treat  of  them  more  or 
less  thoroughly ;  I  will  therefore  remain  con- 
tent with  selecting  a  few  distinguished  names 
whose  bearers  exerted  a  wide  and  enduring 
influence  upon  Judaism. 

First,  and  before  all,  w^e  must  here  again 
mention  Ilillel  and  Shammai,  whose  morality 
and  life  stand  blameless.  Shammai  is  distin- 
guished from  his  famous  contemporary  only 
in  that  he  more  scrupulously  founded  individ- 
ual precepts  upon  the  fixed  law.  No  doubt 
Ilillel  is  more  important  for  us ;  for  his  whole 
teaching  was  the  school  of  moral  purity  and 
of  love,  in  which  the  best  of  Jesus  Christ's 
teaching  is  already  contained.  At  this  early 
date  the  apocryphal  Book  of  Wisdom  must 
also  be  mentioned  which  was  indited  in  Alex- 
andria in  the  time  of  Caligula,  and  which  has 
erroneously  been  ascribed  to  Philo.  It  is  an 
attack  upon  the  immorality  and  idolatry  of 
the  pagans.  The  Jew  known  under  the  name 
of  ''Pseudo-Phokylides"  pursues  the  same  aim 
and  recommends  the  pure  morality  of  the 
Jews  to  the  Greeks.  I  must  also  mention  the 
patriarch    Rabbi   Simon,  of  the    second  cen- 


232  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

tiiiy,  whose  saying  has  come  down  to  us :  "  The 
world  rests  upon  three  conditions  —  truth, 
righteousness,  and  peace."  Eabbi  Mar  Sam-. 
uel  had  great  influence  in  the  third  century. 
The  prophet  Jeremiah  liad  already  enjoined 
upon  the  exiled  Jews:  "Further  the  welfare 
of  the  state  to  which  ye  have  been  driven  in 
exile."  Samuel  raised  tliis  to  a  precept,  which 
w^as  to  be  universally  binding  for  the  Jew,  that 
wherever  he  might  be,  the  laws  of  the  land 
should  be  as  binding  as  are  his  own.  This  pre- 
cept li*as  been  Ticcepted  by  the  Jews  wherever 
they  have  been,  and  they  have  lived  up  to  it. 
I  omit  a  long  period  and  turn  to  Rabbi 
Gershom  Ben  Yehuda,  who  had  a  very  benefi- 
cent influence  upon  Judaism.  In  spirit  Juda- 
ism always  favored  monogamy ;  but  it  had 
not  expressly  forbidden  polygamy.  This  was 
first  done  by  Gershom.  Since  that  time  mo- 
nogamy remains  inviolate.  The  numerous 
poems  which  bear  testimony  to  the  beauti- 
ful relation  between  man  and  wife  are  most 
impressive.  A  special  class  of  these  were 
the  bridal  songs  in  which  1  ehuda  Ben  Ilalevi 
distinguished  himself,  and  which  praise  the 
high  dignity  and  sanctity  of  matrimony.  In 
the  eleventh  century  follows  Rabbi  Ilai,  and 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  233 

lie  expressed  his  own  noble  morality  in  a 
didactic  poem  called  "  Miissar  Haskel,"  wliicli 
was  translated  into  Latin  and  was  frequent- 
ly edited.  In  the  same  century  there  lived 
Bachia  Ben  Joseph  Ibn  Bakuda,  the  central 
aim  of  whose  life  w\as  expressed  in  his  book 
Chohoth  Ilalebciboth  (that  is,  Duties  of  the 
TlearPj^  in  which  he  advocated  the  intensify- 
ing of  the  Jewish  law  with  the  repression  of 
the  ritual  laws.  He  w^as  a  ''pietist"  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  word,  and  strongly  leaned 
towards  asceticism.  In  the  f blowing  century 
Yehuda  Sir  Leon  Ben  Isaac  opposed  himself 
to  the  ascetic  tendency  of  Rabbi  Bachia.  He 
stisfmatized  as  wicked  all  isolation  from  human 
intercourse,  and  held  all  forms  of  monastic 
life  to  be  immoral.  Concerning  prayer  he 
has  beautifully  said  that  ''it  only  is  of  value 
in  the  mother-tongue,  for  in  a  foreign  tongue 
it  leaves  the  heart  empty."  Finally,  I  must 
also  mention  in  this  period  Maimonides  him- 
self; as  in  several  chapters  of  his  commentary 
to  the  Mishna,  as  well  as  in  his  Move  Ildne- 
hucldm^  he  has  systematized  philosophically 
(chiefly  according  to  Aristotle)  the  ethics  of 
the  Jews,  and  inasmuch  as  he  frequently  re- 
fers to  this  subject  in  his  other  works. 


234  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

From  ethics  I  am  naturally  led  to  law  and 
jurisprudence,  inasmuch  as  with  the  Jews  the 
duties  of  morality  and  the  duties  of  law  are 
hardly  distinguished.  A  few  additions  to 
what  has  just  been  said  may  therefore  suffice. 
I  have  already  mentioned  Rabbi  Simon  and 
Rabbi  Samuel.  Rabbi  Ilai  wrote  a  book  in 
Arabic  on  the  commercial  law  of  the  Talmud, 
which  w\as  subsequently  translated  into  He- 
brew, In  the  twelfth  century  Rabbi  Isaac 
Ilalevi  was  distinguished  as  a  teacher  of  civil 
law.  It  was  'universally  recognized  in  the 
south  of  France  that  the  Jewish  laws  were 
better  than  the  Christian  ones,  a  view  which 
was  never  refuted,  but  which  was  only  con- 
demned as  heresy.  The  most  important  do- 
main in  which  the  Jews  effected  an  essential 
change  in  the  limitations  of  Roman  law  was 
their  invention  of  drafts  and  letters  of  credit, 
through  which  also  the  whole  of  commerce 
experienced  a  greater  extension.  Thus,  w^hen 
under  Philip  11.  plunder  and  incendiarism 
was  renewed  in  the  most  shameful  manner 
against  the  Jews,  the  institution  of  drafts 
gave  them  a  possibility  to  save  from  the 
Christian  highway  robbers  at  least  a  part  of 
their  possessions. 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  235 

The  Jews,  furtliennore,  considered  hygiene 
to  be  a  moral  duty;  to  care  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  tlie  normal  condition  of  one's  body 
through  proper  diet,  as  well  as  the  care  and 
restoration  to  health  of  those  who  are  diseased. 
We  therefore  find  most  of  their  teachers  also 
educated  in  medicine,  and  often  members  of 
the  medical  profession.  How  conscientious 
they  were  in  the  performance  of  this  duty 
can  be  best  realized  in  the  beautiful  prayer 
which  Maimonides  wrote  for  the  doctor  w^lio 
is  about  to  visit  a  patient.  One  may  say  that 
nntil  the  medical  schools  at  Montpellier  and 
Salerno  (which  were  chiefly  founded  by  Jews) 
were  organized,  the  Jews  were  almost  the 
only  physicians  in  the  whole  of  the  then 
known  world.  Later  the  Arabs  joined  them 
in  this  work,  and  when  these  w^ere  expelled 
from  Spain  the  Jews  were  again  the  only 
representatives  of  medical  science  in  EurojDC. 
The  brutal  and  ignorant  Christians  of  that 
time  even  arrived  at  the  absurd  superstition 
that  only  the  Jews  were  possessed  of  the  talent 
for  medicine.  Secular  and  spiritual  princes, 
who  plundered  and  persecuted  the  Jews  in 
the  most  shameful  manner,  still  refused  to 
accept   a  Christian,   nay,   even  -a    converted 


236  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Jew,  as  their  court  pliysician.  So  Francis  I. 
of  France.  Tliere  was  a  time  in  which  the 
Jews  as  court  physicians  held  the  lives  of  all 
the  princes  and  prelates  in  their  hands.  Even 
in  the  sixteenth  century  by  far  the  greater 
number  of  the  most  celebrated  physicians 
were  Jews.  It  will  suffice  here  to  mention 
only  a  few  of  the  most  celebrated  physicians, 
as  the  importance  of  the  Jews  in  this  profes- 
sion is  beyond  all  denial.  As  early  as  tlie 
third  century  we  come  upon  E-abbi  Mar  Sam- 
uel, whom  we  have  already  mentioned.  lie 
even  then  ascribed  most  diseases  to  vitiated 
air,  and  attributed  the  greater  mortality  of 
those  wounded  in  battles  to  the  longer  influ- 
ence of  the  air  upon  their  wounds.  Farraguf^ 
was  celebrated  as  a  translator  and  a  court 
physician  to  Charlemagne.  Towards  the  close 
of  the  ninth  century  Isaac  Ben  Suleiman  Is- 
raeli wrote,  besides  other  books,  an  Arabic 
work  on  fevers,  which  was  soon  translated  into 
Latin,  Spanish,  and  Hebrew.  About  the  same 
time,  under  the  Caliph  Almamun,  Eabbi  Mas- 
halla  and  Eabbi  Abul  Barkat  stood  in   high 

*  It  might  be  a  matter  of  some  pride  to  the  descendants  of 
the  American  naval  hero  of  this  name,  if  they  could  estab- 
lish their  descent  from  this  great  Hebrew. 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  237 

repute  as  physicians  in  the  East.  In  the  thir- 
teenth century  Abraham  Cabrit  wrote  a  com- 
mentary to  Hippokrates.  A  far-famed  teacher 
at  Montpellier,  about  1300,  was  Eabbi  Profa- 
tius.  I  must  also  mention  that  Maimonides 
edited  Galenus,  wrote  aphorisms  on  medi- 
cine, and  that  he  was  invited  to  be  court 
pliysician  to  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion,  but  re- 
fused the  invitation. 

Until  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century 
medicine  and  natural  sciences  w^ere  not  sepa- 
rated from  one  another.  Mathematics  and  as- 
tronomy were  the  first  to  sever  this  connection. 
Therefore,  all  the  physicians  were  also  students 
of  the  natural  sciences,  and  it  will  hardly  be  nec- 
essary to  mention  any  of  these,  especially  in 
this  connection.  I  will  limit  myself  to  mention- 
ing a  few  explorers.  So  Petachiah  of  Ratisbon, 
Eldad  (Danit),  whose  travels  were  translated 
into  Latin,  and,  above  all,  Benjamin  of  Tudela, 
who  travelled  from  1165  to  1173.  He  explored 
nearly  the  whole  known  world  of  that  day. 
His  book,  Mascot  Benjamin  {Iter  Benjami- 
num)^  has  not  only  been  frequently  translated 
into  Latin,  but  also  into  nearly  every  Euro- 
pean language.  The  Jews  also  took  part  in 
the  discovery  of  the  East  Indies,  especially 


238  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

througli  Abraham  de  Beliia  and  Joseph  Zapa- 
tero  de  Lamego,  wlio  were  sent  by  Juan  II.  to 
explore  the  coast  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  island 
of  Ormnz.^ 

I  now  come  to  the  exposition  of  their  merits 
with  regard  to  astronomy.  At  an  early  date 
the  Jews  had  their  own  chronology  and  their 
own  calendar.  In  order  to  keep  this  well-reg- 
ulated, and  to  define  accurately  the  periods  of 
their  festivals,  they  were  bound  to  study  as- 
tronomy ;  and,  as  is  shown  by  many  passages 
in  the  Talmud,  and  later  by  Maimonides,  the 
knowledge  of  the  heavenly  constellations  fvas 
recoo-nized  as  a  livino;  stimulus  towards  the 
knowledge  of  God  and  to  piety. 

Already  among  the  successors  of  Hillel, 
Gamaliel  is  praised  as  a  mathematician  and 
astronomer.  He  is  stated  even  to  liave  used 
the  telescope  (of  course  without  glasses)  in  the 
year  a.d.  89.  Jehoshua  already  knew  the  sev- 
enty (seventy  -  three)  years'  cycle  of  a  small 
comet  (Halley's  comet).  Mar  Samuel  gave,  in 
a"Boaita,"  theories  on  the  construction  of  the 
heavens;  on  the  sun,  moon,  stars;  on  the  causes 
and  changes  of  the  seasons,  etc.      He  wrote 

*  Modern  research  also  promises  to  show  that  they  were 
concerned  in  the  discovery  of  America. 


INFLUENCE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES    239 

a  special  work  on  the  seasons,  the  manuscript 
of  which  still  exists  in  the  Vatican.  He  was 
at  the  same  time  a  decided  opponent  of  astrol- 
ogy, which  he  despised. 

For  a  long  time  the  calendar  was  tied  to 
numerous  ancient  formalities,  and  was  kept 
secret  by  the  Sanhedrim,  until  the  patriarch, 
Hillel  II.,  made  it  public.  It  corresponds  so 
completely  to  the  Metonian  cycle  that  it  has 
proved  useful  down  to  our  day.  It  can  hardly 
now  be  computed  how  much  of  this  computa- 
tion is  to  be  ascribed  to  Hi) lei.  Before  Mo- 
hammed, the  Arabs  received  this  calendar  from 
the  Jewish  school  at  Jathrib.  About  the  year 
800,  Rabbi  Sahal  al  Tabari  (called  Eab'ban) 
gained  a  great  name  as  mathematician  and  as- 
tronomer. He  was  the  first  to  translate  Ptole- 
mseus  into  Arabic,  and  discovered  the  refraction 
of  light.  Eabbi  Abusahal  Dunash  Ben  Tam- 
min,  famous  as  a  physician  and  as  an  astrono- 
mer, was  one  of  the  first  who  used  the  Arabic 
numbers  which  were  then  introduced.  The 
astronomical  works  of  Kabbi  Abraham  Ben 
Chija  {Abargeloni)  about  this  time  were  trans- 
lated into  Latin  and  extensively  used.  We 
also  possess  a  thorough  and  extensive  refuta- 
tion of  the  astrological  superstition  by  Mai- 


240  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

monides,  wliicli,  however,  failed  to  make  Chris- 
tian priests  and  princes  the  wiser.  A  very 
great  mathematician  of  the  twelftli  century 
was  John  of  Savilla  or  de  Luna.  He  wrote  a 
practical  arithmetic  in  which,  for  the  first  time, 
we  meet  with  ciphering  with  decimal  fractions, 
probably  his  own  invention.  In  the  thirteenth 
century  I  need  only  dwell  upon  the  book  So- 
har,  which  book  teaches  the  revolution  of  the 
earth  about  its  axis  as  the  cause  of  night  and 
day  long  before  Copernicus.  In  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  Alphonse  X.,  called 
''the  wise,"  was  raised  to  the  throne  of  Castile. 
He  manifested  a  passion  for  astronomy,  and 
had  new  astronomical  tables  made,  which  were 
long  used  by  astronomers  as  the  ''  Alphonsian 
tables."  He  intrusted  the  direction  of  this  en- 
terprise to  the  Jewish  astronomer  Kabbi  Isaac 
Ben  Sid.  About  the  same  time  Kabbi  Judas 
Ben  Hakohen  translated  for  the  same  monarch 
the  astronomical  works  of  Avicenna  into  Span- 
ish. To  him  is  also  ascribed  the  division  of 
all  the  stars  into  the  forty-eight  star  pictures. 
Under  Alphonso  XL,  Kabbi  David  Audrahan, 
Isaac  Ben  Samuel,  Ben  Israel,  and  Jacob  Ben 
Tibbon  are  praised  for  working  out  astronomi- 
cal tables;  while  Profatius,  one  of  the  most  eel- 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  241 

ebrated  teachers  of  medicine  at  the  Academy  of 
Moiitpellier,  is  also  distinguished  as  an  astron- 
omer. I  must  especially  mention  here  again 
Levi  Ben  Gershon  (Ralbag),  better  known  un- 
der the  name  of  Magister  Leo  de  Bagnolas, 
who  had  a  great  reputation  as  an  astronomer. 
His  description  of  an  astronomical  instrument 
which  he  discovered  was  translated  into  Latin 
at  the  special  request  of  Pope  Clement  VI., 
and  Kepler  took  great  pains  to  procure  it. 

All  this  will  suffice  to  show  that  up  to  the 
thirteenth  centurj^  the  Jews  were  infinitely 
superior  to  their  Christian  contemporaries  in 
matters  intellectual  as  well  as  in  all  the  sci- 
ences which  are  of  importance  to  our  life. 
The  practical  result  of  tliis  manifests  itself  in 
that  this  superiority  was  also  recognized  by 
their  contemporaries.  For  as  physicians  they 
were  not  only  masters  of  the  life  of  all  the 
spiritual  and  secular  dignitaries,  but  they  also 
administered  with  great  frequency  the  states 
to  which  they  belonged,  be  it  through  their 
influence,  or  through  the  actual  state  offices 
which  were  intrusted  to  them.  Their  moral 
integrity,  their  intellectual  acumen,  and  their 
wide  experience  very  often  led  them  to  the 
head  of  public  business  among  heathens,  Mo- 

16 


242  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

liammedans,  and  Christians.  Already  nnder 
the  Ptolemies  the  heads  of  Egyptian  Jewish 
schools,  Onias  and  Dositheus,  had  great  influ- 
ence at  court.  Philo  was  sent  by  his  commu- 
nity as  an  ambassador  to  E-ome.  Under  the 
first  Eoman  emperor  the  Jews  were  generally 
esteemed  and  had  great  influence,  as  so  many 
laws  enacted  in  their  favor  show.  So  Kabbi 
Jehoshua  stood  in  high  esteem  with  Hadrian, 
and  Rabbi  Abbahu  with  Diocletian.  The 
144  Novelle  of  the  Codex  proved  that  tlie 
Jews  were  also  esteemed  as  agriculturists  un- 
der Justinian.  The  chiefs  of  the  Jewish  acad- 
emy of  Babylon  were  at  the  same  time  always 
of  political  importance,  especially  under  the 
better  Persian  rulers.  They  also  had  great 
influence  among  the  Moors,  until  Mohammed 
began  to  persecute  them,  after  he  considered 
himself  sufficiently  strong  to  do  without  them. 
Two  Jews,  Abdallah  Ibn  Salam  and  Mukchai- 
rik,  were  especially  helpful  to  him  in  the  edit- 
ing of  the  Koran. 

Schleiden  then  covers  the  ground  to  which 
the  preceding  chapter  has  been  devoted,  and 
also  dwells  upon  the  theoretical  work  on  states- 
manship and  history  which  several  of  these 
great  men  have  left   behind  them.     He  also 


INFLUENCE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  243 

gives  a  survey  of  the  great  Jewish  poets  of 
the  Middle  Ages  as  manifesting  their  high 
artistic  sense,  which  was  only  limited  in  the 
scope  of  its  manifestation  by  the  Mosaic  in- 
terdict of  making  images.  He  continues:  I 
do  not  know  that  the  Jew  has  ever  complained 
of  learned  and  celebrated  women  as  our  Schil- 
ler has  done.  If  so,  he  would  have  found 
abundance  'of  material  in  the  history  of  the 
Jews.  So,  for  instance,  in  the  age  of  the 
Tanaim  a  woman  named  Berurja  was  far- 
famed,  for  her  learning.  In  the  twelfth 
century  a  beautiful  Jewess  gave  lectures  in 
the  East  on  the  Tahnud,  and  Eebecca,  the 
daugliter  of  Rabbi  Mei'r,  the  granddaughter 
of  the  famous  Eashi,  wrote  several  scientific 
works. 

Inasmuch  as  the  beautiful  wedding  songs 
were  sung,  and  as  at  an  early  date  music  was 
introduced  into  the  service  of  the  synagogue, 
the  Jew^s  must  have  preserved  their  familiar- 
ity w^ith  music  which  is  so  often  mentioned  in 
the  Old  Testament.  In  the  eleventh  century 
Jacob  Ben  Jakar  is  mentioned  as  a  writer  on 
music  ;  and  in  the  fifteenth  century  Arkevolte 
wrote  an  interesting  book  on  this  subject, 
w^hich,  as  regards  the  views  therein  contained, 


244  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

strongly  reminds  ns  of  Thiebant's  Eeinheit 
der  Tonkunst. 

I  have  until  now  endeavored  to  prove  how 
actively  the  Jews  were  striving  forward  in  tlie 
path  of  intellect nal  advancement,  and  were 
developing  every  side  of  scientific  life  through 
the  whole  of  the  Middle  Ages,  at  a  time  when 
all  European  nations  were  at  a  stand-still  or  in 
retrogression,  or — as  in  the  case  of  the  Ger- 
manic peoples — hardly  made  one  step  in  ad- 
vance; and  I  have  tried  to  show  how  much 
of  their  spiritual  gain  accrued  to  the  various 
European  nations  who  were  just  beginning  a 
new  spiritual  life  at  the  close  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  But  they  have  another  merit  of  inesti- 
mable magnitude.  When  the  Occidental  peo- 
ples began  longingly  to  stretch  out  their  liands 
for  the  golden  fruit  of  ancient  culture,  the 
Jews  had  to  step  in  and  make  them  accessible 
to  them ;  for  the  Christians,  in  their  dense 
ignorance,  did  not  understand  the  languages 
in  which  the  spirit  of  the  ancient  world  was 
embodied.  If  the  Jews  had  not  worked  as 
translators,  we  might  have  remained  fast  in 
the  dark  Middle  Ages  for  a  much  longer  time. 
The  first  people  who,  after  the  night  of  migra- 
tion of  the  races  and  their  coarse  orgies,  devel- 


£^^    Of   TICS 
INFLUENCE    IN   THE    MIDDLE    AG^lS^X^U  ^^ 

oped  a  new  intellectual  life  were  the  Arabian 
Moors,  and  to  them  only  the  Jews  opened  out 
the  works  of  ancient  Greece. 

Even  in  the  translation  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment into  Greek  (the  so-called  Septuagint) 
the  Jew  Aristobulos  was  especially  active; 
and  the  book  of  Jesus  Sirach  was  translated 
into  Greek  by  his  grandson  of  the  same  name. 
In  the  second  century  the  Greek  translation 
of  the  Thora  by  Akylas  was  made ;  and  in 
the  fourth  century  the  Chaldean  (the  so-called 
Targum  Onkelos),  and  before  this  the  Assyr- 
ian (the  so-called  Peshito),  were  added  to  it. 
In  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century  Messer 
Gawaich  translated  the  medical  book  of  Aaron 
from  the  Assyrian  into  Arabic.  In  the  ninth 
century  Eabban  (Sahal  al  Tabari)  translated 
Ptolem^eus  into  Arabic,  and  Saadia  Ben  Jo- 
seph transferred  the  Old  Testament  into  the 
same  language.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
tenth  century  Eabbi  Joseph  Ibn  Abitur  com- 
pleted his  great  work,  the  Arabian  translation 
of  the  Mishna,  at  the  request  of  the  caliph 
Alhakem  II.  Through  the  famous  Ohasdai, 
Dioskorides  first  came  to  Spain  as  a  gift  of 
Constantino  VIII.  of  Byzantium,  and  was 
translated  throuo;h  Latin  into  iVrabic  with  the 


246  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

help  of  a  Greek  monk.  From  tliis  time  on 
works  of  tins  class  are  so  frequent  that  it  is 
hardly  worth  our  while  to  enumerate  names. 
Whole  families  took  part  in  such  work  for 
several  generations;  so  the  Tibbon  family, 
through  whom  especially  the  works  of  Aver- 
roes  and  Aristotle  were  translated  into  Latin, 
and  were  made  accessible  to  Western  Europe. 
Moses  Ibn  Tibbon  gave  an  excellent  transla- 
tion of  Euclid.  The  family  Kalonymos  holds 
an  equally  high  position  in  this  respect.  The 
Emperor  Frederick  II.  especially  valued  their 
services  as  translators,  as  well  as  those  of  Ja- 
cob Anatoli.  Finally,  we  must  also  mention 
in  this  connection  the  work  of  the  French 
family  Kimchi. 

Casting  one  more  glance  back  we  find  that 
the  Jews,  through  the  whole  of  the  dark,  men- 
tally sterile,  and  rotten  Middle  Ages,  were  the 
preservers  of  a  rational  agriculture,  as  of  all 
greater  industries,  silk  culture,  dyeing  and 
weaving,  and  the  representatives  and  advanc- 
ers of  wider  commerce — the  foundation  to  the 
wealth  of  nations.  We  have  seen  that  in  con- 
tinuous intellectual  exertion  they  cultivated 
the  whole  region  of  science,  which  they  ad- 
vanced until,  at  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages, 


INFLUENCE    IN   THE    MIDDLE    AGES  247 

they  could  hand  it  over  to  the  nations  who 
were  about  to  awaken  from  their  slee|).  They 
are  the  founders  of  scientific  pliilology.  They 
were  the  only  people  who,  in  contrast  to  the 
narrowness  and  ignorance  of  the  Christian 
clergy,  preserved  and  advanced  a  thorough 
and  fruitful  knowledge  of  Scripture;  because 
for  many  centuries  they  alone  were  familiar 
with  the  Oriental  languages,  and  to  a  certain 
extent  even  with  ancient  Greek,  together  with 
the  knowledge  of  the  Western  tongues.  They 
were  the  only  people  in  whom  a  development 
of  intellectual  life  and  philosophy,  and  espe- 
cially philosophy  of  religion,  could  find  scope, 
and  who  built  up  a  system  of  morals  such  as 
no  other  people  has  done.  It  is  to  them  espe- 
cially that  we  owe  the  scientific  elaboration 
and  advancement  of  medicine;  they  took  a 
most  active  joart  in  the  progress  of  astronomy; 
they  founded  the  famous  schools  of  Montpel- 
lier  and  Salerno,  and  contributed  essentially  to 
the  flourishing  advance  of  Padua.  But  a  few 
years  after  the  invention  of  the  printing-press 
they  already  had  excellent  printing  establish- 
ments in  many  cities. 

It  is  with  justice  that  Eibeyra  de  Santos 
says:  ''We  owe  to  the  Jews,  more  than  to 


248  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

anybody,  our  first  knowledge  of  philosophy, 
of  botany,  of  medicine,  of  astronomy,  of  cos- 
mography, as  well  as  the  elements  of  gram- 
mar and  of  the  sacred  languages,  as  well  as 
nearly  all  studies  of  biblical  literature." 

With  this  Schleiden  closes  his  treatise,  re- 
ferring the  more  curious  to  the  numerous 
original  sources  which  he  has  cited.  We  can- 
not help  feeling  that  the  scientific  integrity  of 
the  man,  his  extensive  studies,  and  the  sources 
which  he  quotes,  are  a  guarantee  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  judgment  and  of  the  estimate 
he  forms  of  the  influence  which  the  Jews 
have  had  in  presenting  to  us  who  live  now 
the  fruit  of  culture  and  civilization  which  we 
prize  as  our  highest  good. 


HEBRAIC    SOCIETIES 


I  THINK  it  likely  that  the  foregoing  chapter 
will  have  been  a  revelation  even  to  many 
thonghtful  and  well-read  people.  The  Jewish 
nation  and  its  literature  are  to  most  people  of 
pnrely  religions  interest.  Their  literature  and 
language,  if  they  are  not  thus  regarded  in 
their  religious  bearing,  are  considered  a  matter 
of  remote  antiquity,  not  directly  connected 
with  European  life  and  thought,  perhaps  even 
opposed  to  it.  As  such  matters  of  antiquarian 
interest,  they  are  considered  on  a  level  with  the 
monuments  and  language  of  ancient  Egypt, 
Assyria,  and  Babylon.  But  the  mediaeval  and 
modern  aspect  of  Jewish  civilization,  and  the 
fact  that  it  is  an  essential  part  of  such  Euro- 
pean history,  have  been  quite  ignored,  if  they 
are  not  absolutely  unknown. 

It  makes  those  who  are  imbued  with  the 
historical  and  scientific  sense  shudder  that  so 


250  THE    JEWISH    QUESTIOX 

vast  and  integral  a  portion  of  the  civilization 
of  mediaeval  Europe  should  have  remained  un- 
known to  us.  We  must  realize  how  imperfect, 
nay,  how  fragmentary,  tlie  picture  of  mediaeval 
history,  as  it  has  been  handed  down  to  us,  is. 
Even  now  our  best  efforts  to  remedy  this  evil 
must  be  frustrated  ;  and  this  is  owing  chiefly 
to  the  neglect  and  the  involuntary  one-sided- 
ness  of  the  modern  Jewish  historians  them- 
selves. We  have  not  at  hand  a  work  which 
will  give  us  an  adequate  picture  of  the  life, 
actual  and  not  only  religious,  the  civilization 
and  thought,  not  only  moral  and  intellectual 
but  also  aesthetic,  of  the  Jewish  people  in 
more  modern  times.  The  historical  works  of 
Graetz,  Geiger,  and  others  do  not  adequately 
respond  to  this  historical  need.  There  is  in 
them  all  an  undue  preponderance  of  the  relig- 
ious and  martyrological  element.  And  though 
this  can  well  be  accounted  for  in  the  essential 
nature  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  of  their  fate 
and  history,  the  result  is  none  the  less  unsatis- 
factory and  deplorable.  Eeligion  has  no  doubt 
been  the  central  feature  of  the  daily,  as  well 
as  the  higher  intellectual,  life  of  the  Jewish 
people,  and  is  thus  organically  interwoven  with 
their  history ;  and  so,  too,  have  their  sufferings 


HEBRAIC    SOCIETIES  251 

and  their  martyrdom  become  an  almost  essen- 
tial attribute  of  them  as  a  people.  But  in 
their  history  there  are  other  elements  of  a 
brighter  nature,  which  may  be  suppressed  or 
robbed  of  their  central  importance  and  vital- 
ity if  these  two  elements  of  religion  and  suf- 
fering are  magnified  out  of  proportion  in  an 
account  of  their  past  life.  In  one  word,  we 
desire  to  have  some  adequate  and  truthful 
record  of  tlie  life  of  the  Jews  since  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  at  moments 
when  they  are  neither  praying  nor  suffering — 
we  require  what  the  Germans  call  a  "Kultur 
Geschichte  "  of  the  Jews.  Where  is  the  learn- 
ed Jew  who  will  write  such  a  "  Kultur  Ge- 
schichte"? It  will,  no  doubt,  be  a  difficult 
task,  and  requires  in  him  not  only  the  means  of 
exposition  essential  to  a  great  historian,  but  also 
an  absolute  familiarity  with  tlie  Hebrew  and 
other  languages,  and  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  original  sources  of  its  vast  literature. 
And  where  is  the  great  historian  of  the  Middle 
Ages  wdio  will  embody  this  element  of  medi- 
aeval life  in  his  general  history,  and  will  there- 
by supplement  our  knowledge  of  that  which 
now  remains  fragmentary  and  inaccurate  ? 
Tlie  general   student  of  history  may  even 


252  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

find  that  he  has  neglected  a  mass  of  evidence, 
of  historical  sources,  bearing  upon  European 
history  independently  of  its  relation  to  the 
Jews  scattered  tliroughout  their  mediaeval 
documents  which  may  serve  as  the  most  im- 
portant collateral  proof  with  regard  to  events 
of  European  history  that  rest  upon  slender 
foundations  of  evidence.  Not  to  mention  the 
casual  data  contained  in  tlieir  general  religious 
literature  and  the  earliest  chronicles,  he  may 
find  it  of  the  greatest  importance  to  consult 
the  professedly  historical  works  of  the  three 
Ibn  Vergas  and  Prophiat  Duran  in  the  six- 
teenth century ;  the  valuable  records  of  Joseph 
llakohen  concerning  the  chronicles  of  the 
kings  of  France;  the  works  of  Samuel  Usque 
and  Moses  de  Rossi ;  in  the  seventeenth  centu- 
ry, the  works  of  David  Gans,  of  Daniel  Kon- 
forte,  of  Miguel  di  Barrios;  and,  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  of  Jechiel  Heilprin  and  others. 
Meanwhile  a  vast  material  reflecting  this 
high  civilization  is  at  hand,  scattered  through- 
out the  great  mass  of  manuscripts  and  early 
printed  books  which  time  and  the  ignorant, 
bigoted  persecutors  have  spared  us ;  and  it 
may  be  slipping  from  under  our  grasp  to  the 
inestimable  loss  of  humanity.     There  are  liv- 


HEBRAIC    SOCIETIES  253 

ing  among  us  still  men  to  whom  Hebrew  in 
all  its  dialects  is  a  living  language,  as  ancient 
Greek  was  to  the  earliest  dwellers  in  ancient 
Hellas.  And  it  is  to  be  feared  that  this  inti- 
mate knowledge  and  familiarity  with  the  lan- 
guage and  the  thought  will  die  out  with  these 
men. 

I  have  before  me  a  book  on  the  History 
of  Jewish  Literature^  by  Gustav  Karpeles,  in 
German,  which  has  appeared  within  the  last 
few  years.  Though  in  these  two  volumes  the 
author  cannot  aspire  to  completeness,  the  im- 
pression which,  both  for  extent  and  quality, 
the  summary  account  of  the  literary  works  of 
the  Jewish  people  produces  in  us  is  one  of 
deep  regret,  if  not  of  revolt,  that  we  should 
have  been  deprived  of  these  vast  treasures  for 
so  long  which  might  have  added  to  the  eleva- 
tion and  refinement  of  civilized  nations. 

He  has  subdivided  the  whole  of  Jewish  lit- 
erature into  six  periods  : 

The  first  reaches  down  to  the  year  200  B.C., 
and  comprises  ancient  Hebrew  writings  dur- 
ing the  period  of  national  independence,  which 
forms  the  groundwork  for  the  whole  of  the 
subsequent  literature.  This  is  the  period  of 
Biblical  literature. 


254  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

The  second  period  extends  to  the  year  a.d. 
100,  and  marks  the  junction  between  the  He- 
brew and  the  Hellenic  world.  Most  of  the 
works  are  written  in  Greek.  This  is  the  Ju- 
daeo-Hellenistic  period. 

The  third  period,  most  extensive  as  regards 
time,  stretches  over  nearly  a  thousand  years. 
It  contains  chiefly  the  work  on  the  two  Tal- 
miids,  and  the  literature  related  to  them, 
though  other  sciences  and  even  poetry  are 
developed.  This  is  the  period  of  Talmudic 
literature.  i 

The  fourth  period,  extending  over  three 
hundred  years,  forms  the  second  golden  age 
of  Jewish  literature.  The  Jews  took  part  in 
all  spheres  of  the  intellectual  life  of  the  Arabs ; 
they  wrote  in  Arabic,  Hebrew,  and  Aramaic. 
They  developed  general  literature  and  poetry, 
philosophy  and  grammar,  astronomy  and  med- 
icine, exegesis  and  theology.  Rhyme  and 
prosody  of  the  Arabs  often  lend  their  form, 
and  there  is  produced  the  flower  of  Neo-He- 
braic  poetry  which  lasts  for  more  than  a  cen- 
tury. It  is  chiefly  in  North  Africa,  Spain,  and 
Italy  that  the  work  of  this  period  is  localized ; 
while  in  France  and  Germany  we  flnd  that 
Biblical  criticism  and  the  study  of  law  are 


HEBRAIC    SOCIETIES  255 

cultivated.  The  name  whicli  Karpeles  assigns 
to  this  period,  reaching  to  the  beginning  of 
the  13th  century,  is  the  Judaeo-Arabico-Span- 
ish  literature. 

The  fifth  period  has  no  very  definite  char- 
acter. It  lasts  about  five  centuries,  down  to 
the  point  marked  by  the  life  of  Moses  Men- 
delssohn. The  dispersion  of  the  Jews  after  the 
new  Spanish  exile,  the  invention  of  the  print- 
ing-press, the  revival  of  letters,  all  exert  a  di- 
rect influence.  The  weakened  general  intel- 
lectual vitality  of  the  Jews  of  this  age  makes 
it  possible  for  the  Cabala  with  its  mysticism 
and  magic  to  gain  in  influence.  At  the  same 
time  the  study  of  the  law  is  more  and  more 
extended  and  represses  poetry  and  philosophy. 
The  language  is  not  a  definite  one,  unless  one 
w^ere  to  call  that  Talmudic  idiom,  the  mixture 
of  Hebrew  and  Aramaic,  a  definite  language. 
This  is  called  Kabbinic  literature. 

The  last  period  begins  towards  the  close  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  and  in  it  the  Jews  of 
Germany  take  the  lead.  Accordingly,  tlie  lan- 
guage of  the  most  important  product  of  this 
period  is  German  ;  but  of  course,  as  in  all  pe- 
riods, great  works  are  published  in  Hebrew  as 
^vell  as  in  other  livino;  lano-uas^es.    In  this  era, 


256  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

which  might  be  called  the  revival  of  science, 
the  character,  form,  and  contents  of  literature 
naturally  also  change.  There  is  an  aftermath 
of  poetry,  and  what  is  commonly  called  ''  Belle- 
tristic,"  while  the  sciences  are  highly  devel- 
oped. This  is  called  the  period  of  modern 
Jewish  literature. 

Tlie  number  of  great  names,  as  poets  and  as 
general  men  of  letters,  whom  we  meet  with  in 
this  account,  the  variety  of  works,  the  excel- 
lence of  quality  which  is  ascribed  to  them  by 
those  who  are  capable  of  appreciating  their 
merits,  will  bear  comparison  with  any  national 
literature  of  which  we  know.  And  it  is  not 
only  in  the  contributions  to  religious  and  phil- 
osophical thought,  nor  in  the  influence  upon 
the  advancement  of  science  which  we  have 
just  examined,  that  this  literature  abounds ; 
but  also  in  pure  literature ;  in  poetry,  lyrical, 
didactic,  epic,  devotional ;  in  the  drama,  in  the 
novel,  and  in  satire.  And  these  works  are  not 
only  in  Hebrew  and  Arabic,  but,  to  a  great 
part,  in  Spanish  and  in  all  other  living  tongues. 
Surely  we  who  are  the  sons  of  European  civ- 
ilization have  a  claim  to  these  treasures,  and 
the  question  is,  how  can  they  best  be  made 
accessible  ? 


HEBRAIC    SOCIETIES  257 

The  first  duty  in  tliis  direction  lies  with 
the  Jews  themselves.  Not  that  there  are  not 
learned  men  among  them,  rabbis  and  others, 
wlio  have  always,  and  especially  of  late  years, 
brought  their  learning  to  bear  upon  this  task. 
But  not  enough  is  done,  nor  is  it  done  with 
sufficient  method.  Every  Jewish  rabbi  in 
charge  of  tlie  numerous  congregations  all  over 
the  civilized  globe,  all  those  connected  with 
the  synagogue,  or  general  students  of  their 
religious  history — in  short,  all  those  who  are 
intimately  conversant  with  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage and  capable  of  dealing  with  its  litera- 
ture, ought  to  contribute  their  mite  to  the 
consummation  of  this  great  aim. 

It  was  the  pride  of  the  Jewish  rabbis  of  old 
that  they  were  not  purely  priests ;  they  were 
teachers,  learned  in  their  law  and  in  their  litera- 
ture, and  thus  took  the  place  of  a  scliool-m aster 
or  a  professor  of  the  university.  They  even 
practised  some  trade  or  profession,  wliich  was 
so  wholesome  in  counteracting  the  one-sided- 
ness  to  which  the  lofty  vocation  of  priest  and 
teacher  may  lead,  always  in  danger  of  produc- 
ing a  diseased  state  of  the  mind  and  of  the 
character.  It  is  well  to  remember  the  injunc- 
tion of  Rabbi  Gamaliel  III.  in  the  third  cen- 
17 


258  THE    JEAVISH    QUESTION 

turj  A.D. :  ''  It  is  beautiful  to  be  occupied  with 
the  law  if  one  also  carries  on  secular  work. 
The  exertion  in  botli  spheres  does  not  allow 
sin  to  hold  up  its  head.  Knowledge  of  the 
law  without  craft  or  trade  at  last  goes  under 
and  drags  sin  after  it."  But,  sad  to  say,  this 
tradition  has  not  always  been  preserved.  With 
the  example  of  the  Christian  priesthood  about 
them,  and  the  unconscious  influence  which 
such  surroundings  produce,  the  Jewish  rabbi 
has  often  developed  into  the  Jewish  priest, 
and  finds  his  duties  limited  by  those  of  a 
ritual  and  '^ pastoral"  nature. 

There  ought  to  be  a  great  congress  of  rabbis 
and  learned  Jews,  not  for  the  purpose  of  theo- 
logical disputation,  not  to  discuss  ritual  and 
church  organization,  but  to  organize  the  divis- 
ion of  the  great  literary  labor,  to  elaborate 
and  to  make  accessible  to  the  civilized  world 
the  treasures  which  we  know  are  there,  though 
hidden  under  a  thick  crust  of  unintelligible 
language.  Each  one  of  these  rabbis,  students, 
or  doctors  in  the  law  ought  to  undertake  the 
editing  or  translation  of  some  portion  of  this 
intellectual  cosmos.  Not  only  those  who  are 
learned  or  who  are  Hebrew  scholars,  but  even 
a  simple  Jew  who  is  merely  familiar  with  the 


HEBRAIC    SOCIETIES  259 

modern  patois  called  "  Judiscli-deutscli,"  and 
is  possessed  of  literary  taste,  might  give  us 
some  of  tlie  treasures  couched  in  this  inac- 
cessible dialect.  The  Jewish  societies  and 
alliances  ought  to  ignore  the  ephemeral  move- 
ments which  are  now  directed  against  them, 
and  ought  to  divest  themselves  of  all  militant 
character,  even  though  they  be  only  on  the 
defensive ;  but  all  their  united  efforts  ought  to 
flow  into  the  peaceful  channels  for  the  preser- 
vation and  diffusion  of  the  intellectual  wealth 
which  Judaism  is  keeping  to  itself,  though 
it  does  not  even  enjoy  the  fruits.  Here 
also  lies  the  domain  of  the  publication  socie- 
ties, which  ought  not  to  be  directed  by  any 
practical  purpose  of  this  militant  character, 
but  on  the  purely  theoretical  ground  of  pub- 
lishing w^orks  w^hich,  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, w^ould  not  commend  themselves  to  the 
business  publisher.  They  ought  not  to  accept 
works  which,  in  their  general  scope  and  char- 
acter, do  not  come  into  the  region  of  pure  re- 
search, but  can,  and  ought  to,  find  their  place 
in  the  general  competition  of  modern  books. 

This  is  the  attitude  w^hich  the  Jew^s  ought 
to  hold  w^itli  regard  to  this  great  task.  But  I 
maintain  that  the  question  does  not  concern 


260  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

the  Jews  only,  but  is  universal  in  its  scope  and 
interest.  This  intellectual  life  and  these  intel- 
lectual treasures  do  not  now  belong  only  to  the 
Jews — as  little  as  the  life,  literature,  and  art 
of  ancient  Hellas  belong  to  modern  Greece. 
They  belong  to  us  all.  Ancient  Hellenic 
thought  and  life  have  manifestly  and  avow- 
edly been  incorporated  into  the  whole  civilized 
consciousness;  and  I  claim  the  opportunity  of 
doing  the  same  by  the  mediaeval  life  of  the 
Jews.  To  this  end  the  action  of  the  Jews 
themselves  which  I  have  just  recommended  is 
but  a  preliminary  stage;  but  the  real  channels 
through  which  this  intellectual  life  is  to  flow 
into  the  widened  spheres  of  modern  culture 
are  the  universities  and  the  learned  societies. 

In  a  few  universities  there  are  chairs  of  Tal- 
mudic  and  E-abbinic  literature  ;  but  these  have 
not  yet  found  their  proper  sphere  and  activity, 
nor  are  they  fulfilling  their  essential  function. 
As  far  as  I  can  make  out,  this  is  not  so  much 
due  to  any  remissness  on  the  part  of  those  who 
hold  those  chairs,  but  rather  to  the  general 
want  of  the  knowledge  and  understanding  of 
the  facts  which  I  am  endeavoring  to  impress 
in  this  chapter.  As  it  is,  the  teaching  seems 
to  appeal  almost  exclusively  to  the  theological 


HEBRAIC    SOCIETIES  261 

faculty,  whereas  it  really  belongs  to  the  de- 
partment of  humanistics.  The  students  who, 
by  predisposition,  consider  themselves  to  be 
appealed  to  by  such  studies  are  almost  exclu- 
sively of  the  theological  faculty,  a  few  candi- 
dates to  priesthood  in  the  various  Christian 
sects,  or  those  who  mean  to  become  rabbis.  It 
may  lap  over  into  the  humanistic  studies  ;  but 
it  will  then  only  be  in  its  relation  to  Oriental 
languages.  ]S"ow  the  faculties  to  which  such 
study  ought  really  to  appeal  would  be  those 
of  philosophy,  history,  and  literature.  With 
regard  to  philology,  this  study  does  not  only 
concern  the  section  of  Oriental  languages,  but 
it  may  also  enter  into  the  domain  of  mediae- 
val language."^^  After  what  has  already  been 
said,  I  need  not  dwell  any  longer  upon  the  im- 
portant relation  which  medisevalJudaism  holds 
to  mediaeval  history  and  mediaeval  literature, 
and  we  must  hope  that  distinguished  students 

*  The  Jewish-German  patois  to  which  I  liave  referred  is 
spread  all  over  Europe.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in  it  are  con- 
tained many  forms  and  remnants  of  early  Germany  and  it 
would,  for  instance,  repay  the  student  of  Germanic  language 
to  make  a  careful  investigation  of  this  dialect  for  the  new 
light  it  may  throw  upon  the  earlier  history  of  the  German 
tongue. 


262  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

of  this  department,  not  biassed  by  any  Jewish 
proclivities,  w^ill  give  their  careful  attention  to 
this  nnexplored  domain. 

Finally,  I  would  advocate  the  formation  of 
Hebraic  societies,  corresponding  to  the  Hel- 
lenic societies  which  now  exist  in  most  civil- 
ized centres  of  Western  life.  These  are  to 
have  no  direct  relation  to  the  Jewish  societies 
and  alliances  which  already  exist;  for  their 
aim  is  to  be  purely  scientific,  literary,  and  ar- 
tistic, without  any  admixture  of  racial  or  quasi- 
racial  tendencies.  Their  relation  to  these  nar- 
rower organizations  might  possibly  be  one  of 
history,  such  as  we  find  in  the  history  of  the 
Hellenic  antiquarian  societies.  The  first  anti- 
quarian societies,  which  have  since  done  so 
much  for  the  revival  of  interest  in  the  classical 
world  and  the  extension  of  our  knowledge  con- 
cerning it,  also  had  their  origin  to  a  great  ex- 
tent in  historical  patriotism  and  in  local  asso- 
ciation. The  first  classical  antiquarian  society 
started  in  Home  during  the  Kenaissance  was 
to  a  great  extent  moved  by  the  desire  to  prove 
or  to  maintain  the  relationship  between  the 
great  classical  past  and  the  Roman  Italy  of  the 
day.  But  this  narrow  though  stimulating 
aim  was  soon  merged  in  the  broader  prospect 


HEBKAIC    SOCIETIES  263 

which  sucli  intellectual  effort  opened  out  to 
the  awakened  intelligence  of  the  peoples  of  the 
Renaissance.  And  now  the  nations  of  Ger- 
manic origin  have  done  as  much  as,  if  not  more 
than,  those  of  Romance  origin  to  preserve  and 
to  revivify  the  reiining  and  ennobling  influ- 
ence of  the  great  classical  past. 

In  the  same  way  we  have  no  doubt  that  the 
existing  Hebrew  organizations  have  done,  and 
are  doing,  good  work  in  this  direction  as  re- 
gards mediaeval  Jewish  civilization.  They  are 
no  doubt  collecting,  and  thereby  preserving, 
the  scattered  remnants  of  this  literature,  and, 
as  was  shown  by  the  interesting  exhibit  in  the 
Paris  Exhibition  of  1878,  and  subsequent  ones, 
they  have  done  much  towards  the  preservation 
of  Jewish  antiquities.  But  the  whole  of  this 
intellectual  and  moral  sphere  must  be  widened 
out.  All  civilized  people  of  our  time  have  a 
right,  if  not  a  duty,  to  share  in  the  work ;  and, 
free  from  any  limitation  and  admixture  of  re- 
ligion, race,  or  caste,  we  may  hope  to  see  the 
organization  and  growth  of  such  broader  He- 
braic antiquarian  societies  to  supplement  the 
flourishing  Hellenic  societies  to  whom  we  owe 
so  much.  We  shall  then  be  nearer  to  com- 
pleting our  intellectual  horizon-line  as  regards 


264  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

the  past,  which  shows  gaps  in  important  points ; 
and  within  this  horizon  the  intellectual  and  mor- 
al life  which  is  near  at  hand,  under  our  feet, 
and  before  oar  eyes,  will  be  made  more  fertile 
and  more  beautiful  by  the  final  union  in  har- 
mony of  what  ought  never  to  be  divorced — 
Hebraism  and  Hellenism. 

Rabbi  Jochanan,  in  the  third  century  a.d., 
recommended  that  Jewish  girls  should  be 
allowed  to  learn  the  beautiful  Greek  char- 
acters, as  this  language  was  an  ornament  to 
womankind.  His  appreciation  for  Hellenism 
is  summed  up  in  the  figurative  language  of 
his  prayer: 

"  The  beauty  of  Japhet  [the  type  of  Hellen- 
ism] is  to  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem  "  [He- 
braism]. 


VI 

MONEY   AND   THE    JEWS 

The  preceding  chapters  must  have  made  ns 
realize  the  spiritual  tendencies  of  the  Jews 
and  the  predominance  of  the  spiritual  element 
in  their  lives.  Still,  there  is  current  the  com- 
mon view  that  they  are  materialistic  in  their 
tendency,  and  that  money  greed  is  one  of  their 
chief  characteristics.  This  I  believe  to  be  un- 
true, and  I  shall  endeavor  to  prove  it. 

As  far  as  modern  times  are  concerned,  I 
suppose  it  is  a  common  error,  chiefly  due  to 
the  fact  that  there  are  so  many  among  them 
who  are  prosperous  in  the  worldly  conditions 
of  their  life.  Yet  we  must  not  forget  that 
since  the  downfall  of  chivalry,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  only  visible  outward  sign  of  excel- 
lence, the  "common  denominator"  of  value,  in 
so  far  as  it  makes  itself  physically  perceptible, 
is  money.  We  may  deplore  this  or  not,  we 
do  not  make  it  the  less  a  fact.    In  this  respect 


266  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

we  are  no  doubt  living  in  a  great  and  all- 
important  transition  in  onr  time,  and  we  are 
all  suffering  from  the  dualism  in  our  moral 
consciousness  which  is  tlie  natural  outcome  of 
this  transition.  I  hold  this  dualism  to  be  one 
of  the  central  causes  of  tlie  unrest  and  the 
pessimism  which  rob  the  spirit  of  our  age  of 
that  peace  and  repose  requiring,  above  all 
things,  the  singleness  and  clearness  of  purpose, 
the  complete  moral  approbation  granted  to 
our  main  incentives  of  action  and  effort.  With 
the  downfall  of  feudalism  and  its  common 
code  of  success  which  brouglit  distinction,  the 
general  energies  of  men  were  led  into  econom- 
ical channels,  while  we  have  not  as  yet  estab- 
lished those  clear  and  universally  recogniza- 
ble standards  of  democratic  social  distinction 
which  should  take  the  place  of  previous  re- 
wards offered  to  noble  ambition  by  the  worldly 
powers.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  our  age  has 
strongly  felt  that  this  economical  test  of  value 
is  not  sufficient — nay,  that  it  may  be  degrading 
and  pernicious.  And  there  is  thus  a  disturb- 
ing contradiction,  a  revolt  of  our  higher  moral 
and  ideal  aspirations  in  conflict  with  the  uni- 
versal and  valid  impulses  guiding  our  activity 
and  regulating  our  aims  in  the  daily  exercise 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  267 

of  our  duty  as  bread-winners.  We  are  slowly 
working  out  these  problems  either  by  the 
violent  forms  of  socialistic  agitation,  or  by  the 
violent  opposition  to  this  in  the  individualistic 
direction,  or  by  moderating  influences  of  com- 
promise, or,  finally,  by  the  single  and  uncon- 
scious efforts  of  each  man  who  does  his  best 
to  spiritualize  the  material  struggle  for  life  by 
the  introduction  of  moral,  religious,  and  char- 
itable elements.  But  as  yet,  to  say  the  least, 
but  few  among  us  have  clearly  declared  that 
the  acquisition  of  wealth  within  the  limits 
laid  down  by  the  law  is  an  unworthy  endeav- 
or, indicative  of  a  low  and  mercenary  spirit. 

After  a  comparatively  long  and  thorough 
study  of  the  Jews  and  the  Jewish  question,  I 
now  venture  to  say  that  they  are  not  usually 
predisposed  to  love  money  as  such;  that  they, 
on  the  contrary,  if  I  should  summarize  them 
in  one  word,  tend  to  be  a  nation  of  think- 
ers, and  that  thought  has  ever  brought  them 
the  highest  consideration ;  that  the  actual 
facts  of  their  history  show  this ;  and,  finally, 
that  their  association  with  finance  and  money 
business  is  accidental,  not  essential  to  them. 

I  may  at  once  anticipate  the  proving  of  this 
thesis  by  an   observation  of  facts  which   are 


0^  TIX*'     ^"^  -K^ 


268  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

close  at  hand  and  under  our  eyes.  While  in 
Europe  the  great  financial  enterprises,  or  those 
of  a  speculative  character,  may  be  in  a  large 
proportion  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews,  owing  to 
the  circumstances  of  their  history,  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  the  home  of  mod- 
ern financiering  and  speculation,  this  is  not 
the  case.  The  great  financiers  and  promoters 
in  that  country,  the  millionaires  who  have 
amassed  their  fortunes  by  the  mere  manipula- 
tion of  capital,  are  chiefly  Americans  of  Brit- 
ish extraction.  The  Jews  of  America,  on  the 
other  hand  (I  am  here  ignoring  the  large  pro- 
portion of  poorer  Jews),  are  chiefly  represent- 
atives of  what  I  should  call  legitimate  com- 
merce and  industry,  importers  and  exporters 
of  goods,  and  manufacturers.  Moreover,  the 
evidence  which  I  have  collected  from  unbiassed 
people  with  regard  to  the  Jewish  business 
men  in  America  tends  to  show  that  they  are 
comparatively  possessed  of  the  higher  business 
integrity.  Now  the  fact  that  the  Jews  have 
not  in  any  w^ay  controlled  the  world  of  finance 
and  speculation  in  America  (in  spite  of  the 
predisposition  which  they  might  have  inher- 
ited from  their  recent  European  traditions 
and  the  connections  which  they  would  liave 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  2G9 

found  from  the  very  outset)  is  negatively  due 
to  the  fact  that  in  America  there  exists  for 
them  no  tradition  of  any  restriction  with  re- 
gard to  their  occupation  wliich  might  have 
forced  them  into  this  sphere  of  finance.  And 
it  helps  to  show  the  truth  of  what  1  shall  en- 
deavor to  prove  by  other  testimony — namely, 
that  this  occupation  is  accidental  and  not  es- 
sential to  the  Jewish  people. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  down  to  our  own 
times,  the  Jew  was  restricted  in  his  occupa- 
tions, and  the  superior  members  of  this  com- 
munity had  open  to  them  but  three  spheres  of 
activity  :  commerce,  finance,  or  the  profession 
of  medicine.  Yet,  in  spite  of  what  I  have 
just  said  with  regard  to  the  change  in  our 
views  and  moral  estimate  with  which  we  are 
at  tliis  moment  struggling,  it  is  a  mistake  to 
think  that  in  the  past,  and  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  commerce  and  finance  were  bad  in 
themselves,  and  that  the  world  does  not,  on 
the  contrary,  owe  to  them  the  greatest  debt. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  the  people  were  too  igno- 
rant to  become  merchants  and  financiers — nay, 
they  were  even  frequently  too  low  in  their 
civilization  to  have  evolved  the  needs  for 
these  economical    institutions.     Charlemagne 


270  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

and  many  of  bis  followers  felt  tlieir  necessity 
and  realized  the  great  advantage  which  they 
would  bring.  But  commerce  and  finance  re- 
quired qualifications  which  could  not  be  found 
among  the  serfs  and  even  the  knights  of  those 
ages.  It  demanded  the  knowledge  of  lan- 
guages, wide  views,  a  mobile,  constructive  im- 
agination, and,  above  all,  integrity. 

I  believe  that  the  influence  of  commerce 
npon  the  development  of  morals  has  not  been 
properly  perceived  or  felt.  More  than  any 
worldly  institution  it  appears  to  me  to  have 
contributed  to  the  creation  of  cibstract  moral- 
ity with  regard  to  truth,  in  contradistinction 
to  personal  morality  and  veracity.  Whoever 
has  lived  in  countries  into  which  commerce 
has  not  as  yet  penetrated,  especially  in  the 
East,  must  have  realized  the  total  absence  of 
the  sense  for  an  abstract  duty  to  truth  such  as 
stamps  our  moral  consciousness.  One  often 
meets  with  instances  of  supreme  personal  fidel- 
ity and  faithfulness ;  but  it  is  through  the 
channels  of  love  and  gratitude,  through  the 
emotions,  and  not  through  the  unswerving  ac- 
tion of  an  abstract  belief  in  the  necessity  of 
truth  independent  of  any  personal  regard  or 
affection.    There  may  be  many  causes  for  this 


MONEY    AND   THE    JEWS  271 

fact ;  but  it  appears  to  me  that  the  difference 
is  to  be  ascribed  to  a  considerable  degree  to 
the  presence  or  absence  of  the  influence  of 
commerce  in  contradistinction  to  barter.  This 
form  of  commerce  has  effectually  introduced 
into  the  regions  in  which  it  has  become  domi- 
nant the  idea  of  abstract  veracit}^  The  ex- 
tensive transactions  of  such  commerce  cannot 
be  controlled  by  the  eyes  of  the  participants; 
it  thus  depends  upon  faith  in  the  truthfulness 
of  the  parties  who  may  be  separated  from 
one  another  by  the  mountains  and  seas.  And 
the  more  complicated  this  commercial  system 
grows,  the  greater  grows  the  need  for  tliis 
veracity. 

The  Jews  thus  performed  a  definite  func- 
tion as  merchants  in  the  life  of  mediaeval 
Europe,  and  wealth  accrued  to  them  from  it. 
The  same  holds  good  with  finance.  They  were 
the  bankers  and  financiers  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  word  usury  may  really  cover  a  multitude 
of  sins;  but  we  must  take  heed  lest  it  do  not 
cover  and  smother  entirely  a  number  of  virt- 
ues. Whatever  we  may  feel  now,  the  fact 
remains  that  usury  in  the  Middle  Ages  was 
the  natural  and  normal  form  of  our  banking 
business;  and  that  thi'ough  it  commerce  was 


272  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

developed  ont  of  the  rudimentary  barter  stage. 
This  commercial  advancement  did  much  for 
the  spread  of  civilization.  We  must  also  re- 
member that  even  pawnbrokery  was  a  legiti- 
mate, and,  in  some  respects,  beneficial  form  of 
business  in  the  earlier  days,  sometimes  the 
monopoly  of  States  and  princes,  and  that  the 
three  balls  of  the  modern  pawnbroker  repre- 
sent the  arms  of  the  Medici  family.  But  we 
can  equally  understand  how  those  benefited  by 
this  sphere  of  utility  which  was  left  open  to 
the  intellectual  superiority  of  the  Jews  should 
dislike  the  position  of  the  debtor  more  than 
that  of  the  creditor,  and  should  heap  the 
odium  of  their  displeasure,  and  even  hatred, 
upon  those  to  whom  they  w^ere  thus  in- 
debted. 

The  main  functions  of  these  Jews,  so  far  as 
it  was  not  purely  commercial,  was  that  of 
bringing  capital  and  labor  together,  and,  in  so 
far,  of  raising  the  civilization  in  these  coun- 
tries. They  were  what  the  bankers  are  now. 
Such  was  their  influence,  for  instance,  in  Eng- 
land towards  tlie  close  of  the  twelfth  and  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

"  In  Angevin  England,^'  says  a  late  writer, 
'*it  became  impossible  to  obtain  the  capital  for 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  273 

any  large  scheme  of  biiildiDg  or  organization 
unless  the  projectors  had  the  capital  them- 
selves. 

''Here  was  the  function  which  the  Jew 
could  perform  in  England  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, which  was  just  passing  economically  out 
of  the  stage  of  barter.  Capital  was  wanted  in 
particular  for  the  change  of  architecture  from 
wood  to  stone  for  tlie  better  classes,  and  espe- 
cially for  the  erection  of  castles  and  monas- 
teries. The  Jews  were,  indeed,  the  first  in 
England  to  possess  dwelling-houses  built  with 
stone,  probably  for  purposes  of  protection  as 
well  as  for  comfort.  And  for  a  specimen  of 
their  influence  on  monastic  architecture,  we 
liave  it  on  record  that  no  less  than  nine  Cister- 
cian monasteries  of  the  north  country  were 
built  by  moneys  lent  by  the  great  Aaron  of 
Lincoln,  who  also  boasted  that  he  had  built 
the  shrine  of  St.  Alban.  It  was  chiefly,  then, 
the  smaller  barons  and  the  monasteries  that 
needed  the  capital  of  the  Jews,  and  it  is  char- 
acteristic enough  that  their  chief  persecutors 
came  from  precisely  these  two  classes. 

''The  Church  prohibition  of  'usury'  would 
have  been  ineffective  if  the  State  had  not  fol- 
lowed suit.     If  the  usurer  liad  merely  to  fear 

18 


274  THE    JEVYISH    QUESTION 

the  spiritual  terrors  of  the  Church,  the  prac- 
tice might  not  have  been  very  greatly  cliecked. 
But  the  State  followed  suit  by  confiscating  the 
chattels  of  a  usurer  who  died  in  his  sin,  and 
applied  the  jDrovision  quite  impartially  to  Jew 
or  Christian.  This  provision  brought  about  a 
curious  result  when  there  came  to  exist  a  class 
of  men  like  the  Jews  of  Angevin  England, 
whose  sole  function  w^as  to  be  usurers  or  capi- 
talists. The  State  as  represented  by  the  king 
became  the  universal  legatee  of  the  whole 
Jewry,  and  thus  w^as  brought  into  immediate 
connection,  a  sort  of  sleeping  j^artnership,  with 
Jewish  usury. 

"The  result  of  the  Church's  attitude  towards 
Jews  and  towards  usury  was  to  put  the  king 
into  a  peculiar  relation  towards  his  Jewish 
subjects.  The  Church  kept  them  out  of  all 
other  pursuits  but  that  of  usury,  w^hich  it 
branded  as  infamous ;  the  State  followed  suit, 
and  confiscated  the  estates  of  all  usurers  dying 
as  such.  Hence,  as  a  Jew  could  only  be  a 
usurer,  his  estate  was  always  potentially  the 
king's,  and  could  be  dealt  with  by  the  king  as 
if  it  were  his  own.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  it  was 
not  to  the  king's  interest  to  keep  the  Jew's 
^vealth  in  his  own  hands,  for  he  (the  king),  as 


MONEY    AND    TFIE    JEWS  275 

a  good  Christian,  could  not  get  usury  for  it, 
while  the  Jew  could  very  soon  double  and 
treble  it,  since  the  absence  of  competition  en- 
abled hini  to  fix  the  rate  of  interest  very  high, 
rarely  less  than  forty  per  cent.,  often  as  much 
as  eighty.  As  the  Jew  might  die  before  the 
debt  was  due  and  the  king  be  then  content  to 
take  a  much  smaller  sum  as  a  composition  for 
the  debt,  it  was  often  the  debtor's  interest  to 
keep  the  debt  standing.  The  usury  was  in 
the  nature  of  a  bet  against  the  Jew's  life. 
The  only  useful  function  the  Jew  could  per- 
form towards  both  king  and  people  was  to  be 
as  rich  as  possible,  just  as  the  larger  the  capi- 
tal of  a  bank  the  more  valuable  the  part  it 
plays  in  the  world  of  commerce.  No  wonder 
the  expression  '  rich  as  a  Jew  '  passed  into 
a  proverb ;  as  applied  to  the  English  Jew  of 
the  twelfth  century,  it  was  as  tautologous  as 
saying  'rich  as  a  bank.' 

"  The  king  reaped  the  benefit  of  these  riches 
in  several  ways.  One  of  his  main  functions 
and  main  source  of  income  was  selling  justice, 
and  Jews  were  among  his  best  customers. 
Then  he  claimed  from  them,  as  from  his  other 
subjects,  fines  and  amerciaments  for  all  the 
events  of  life.     The  pipe  rolls  contain  entries 


276  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

of  fines  paid  by  Jews  to  marry,  not  to  marry, 
to  become  divorced,  to  go  a  journey  across  the 
sea,  to  become  partners  with  another  Jew"^ — in 
short,  for  all  the  decisive  events  of  life.  And, 
above  all,  the  king  got  frequent  windfalls  from 
the  lieirs  of  deceased  Jews,  who  paid  heavy 
reliefs  to  have  their  fathers'  charters  and 
debts,  of  which,  as  we  have  seen,  they  could 
make  more  profitable  use  than  the  king,  to 
whom  the  Jews'  property  escheated,  not  qua 
Jew,  but  qiia  usurer.  In  the  case  of  Aaron 
of  Lincoln  the  king  did  not  disgorge  at  all  at 
his  death,  but  kept  in  his  own  hands  the  large 
treasures,  lands,  houses,  and  debts  of  the  great 
financier.  lie  appears  to^  have  first  organized 
the  Jewry,  and  made  the  whole  of  the  Eng- 
lish Jews  his  agents  throughout  the  country. 
Aaron's  treasures  were  lost  at  sea,  but  his 
debts  amounted  to  some  £20,000,  more  than 
half  the  king's  income,  and  required  a  spe- 
cial branch  of  the  Exchequer,  the  ScacGariurrh 
Aaro7iis,  with  two  treasurers  and  two  clerks 
to  look  after  them  for  many  years  thereafter. 
"  This  great   windfall,  wliich   occurred  in 

*  There  was  a  special  reason  why  the  king  claimed  com- 
pensation for  a  partnership  between  Jews.  Debts  to  the  firm 
would  not  fall  into  his  hands  when  one  of  the  partners  died, 


MONEY    AND   THE    JEWS  277 

1187,  must  have  opened  the  eyes  of  the  king's 
officials  to  the  profitable  source  of  income  that 
lay  in  Jewish  usury ;  three  years  later  they 
learned  the  dangers  to  which  this  source  was 
liable.  The  emeutes  of  1189-90,  culminating 
in  the  York  massacre,  had  as  one  of  their  ob- 
jects the  destruction  of  the  deeds  and  char- 
tors  of  the  Jews ;  in  York  they  were  burned 
in  the  minster.  The  loss  sustained  by  the 
king  led  to  the  organization  of  the  Jewry  in 
1194,  when  the  'Ordinances  of  the  Jewry' 
were  promulgated ;  tliese  provided  for  a  fall 
record  of  all  Jewish  business  to  be  kept  in  the 
king's  hands,  so  that  he  might  know  exactly 
how  much  each  Jew  was  worth,  and  how  much 
he  could  extract  from  him.  The  Exchequer  of 
the  Jews  of  the  thirteenth  century,  with  its 
Star-chamber,  devoted  to  the  Shetars  of  the 
Hebrew  usurers,  grew  out  of  the  '  Ordinances 
of  the  Jewry,'  but  lies  beyond  the  limits  of 
our  present  purview.'^ 

"  For,  in  addition  to  these  quasi-regular  and 
normal  sources  of  income  from  his  Jews,  the 
king  claimed  from  tliem  (again  as  from  his 
other  subjects)  various-contributions  from  time 

*  See  the  excellent  paper  of  Dr.  C.  Gross  on  the  subject  in 
papers  of  the  Anglo-Jewish  Historical  Exhibition,  1888. 


278  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

to  time  under  the  names  of  gifts  and  tallages. 
And  here  he  certainly  seems,  on  occasion  at 
least,  to  have  exercised  an  unfavorable  discrim- 
ination in  his  demands  from  the  Jews.  In  1187, 
the  year  of  Aaron  of  Lincoln's  death,  he  took  a 
tenth  from  the  rest  of  England,  which  yielded 
£70,000,  and  a  quarter  from  the  Jews,  which 
gave  as  much  as  £60,000.  In  other  words,  the 
Jews  were  reckoned  to  have,  at  that  date,  one- 
quarter  of  the  movable  wealth  of  the  king- 
dom (£240,000  against  £700,000  lield  by  the 
rest)."'^ 

No  doubt  the  rate  of  interest  was  inordi- 
nately high  ;  but  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise. 
The  share  which  the  kings  and  other  rulers  ex- 
acted, and  the  precariousness  of  the  business 
owing  to  the  arbitrary  robberies  of  the  State 
itself,  made  this  necessary.  In  spite  of  this, 
the  beneficial  influence  of  the  Jews  in  the 
economical  life  of  Europe  during  the  Middle 
Ages  must  be  acknowledged  and  ought  never 
to  be  ignored. 

Charlemagne  marks  the  beginning  of  the 
Occidental  civilization  of  Europe  as  opposed  to 

*Thi3  quotation  is  from  a  book  which  has  just  appeared: 
The  Jews  of  Angevin  Englaad,  by  J.  Jacobs,  London,  1893. 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  279 

the  Byzantine  Empire.  We  liave  already  seen 
liow  lie  valued  the  intellectual  life  of  the  Jews; 
but  he  prized  none  the  less  the  civilizing  influ- 
ence which  the  extension  of  commerce  through 
them  might  have  u23on  Europe.  The  nobles  in 
his  time  followed  the  profession  of  war,  while 
the  lower  classes  consisted  of  artisans,  the  peas- 
antry, or  serfs.  The  Jews  were  needed  by  him 
to  supply  tlie  needed  class,  and  he  conferred 
npon  them  privileges  corresponding  to  those 
granted  subsequently  to  great  commercial  com- 
panies. They  not  only  benefited  the  country 
in  which  they  lived  through  their  commerce, 
but  also  through  the  introduction  of  manu- 
factories. Thus,  in  the  twelfth  century,  the 
Jews  brought  the  silk  industry  into  Greece, 
especially  at  Thebes  ;  in  the  thirteenth  century 
they  opened  out  the  agricultural  wealth  of  the 
districts  of  the  lower  Danube,  Vistula,  and  on 
either  side  of  the  Karpathians. 

The  advantage  which  the  Jews  had  been  to 
Spain  became  most  manifest  after  their  expul- 
sion. In  spite  of  the  robbery  which  was  prac- 
tised upon  them,  it  is  estimated  that  they  car- 
ried away  with  them  thirty  million  ducats  ;  but 
what  was  still  more  important  was  the  fact  that 
Spain  lost  the  twentieth  part  of  its  inhabitants 


280  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

— the  most  energetic  portion  of  its  population — 
not  only  capitalists,  merchants,  agriculturists, 
physicians,  and  learned  men,  but  also  arti- 
sans, armorers,  and  metal-workers  of  all  kinds. 
Towns  were  deserted,  and  all  enterprise  came 
to  a  stand-still.  Notwithstanding  the  acquisi- 
tion of  so  many  wealthy  colonies,  Spain  from 
that  day  on  became  more  and  more  impov- 
erished. All  Europe,  even  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  charged  Fei'dinand  with  the  folly  of  los- 
ing so  useful  a  class  of  his  people,  quite  apart 
from  the  cruelty  of  the  act.  The  Sultan  Bay- 
azid  of  Turkey  invited  the  Jews  to  settle  in 
his  country,  and  said  :  "  You  call  Ferdinand  a 
wise  monarch — he  who  has  impoverished  his 
country  and  enriched  our  own  ?" 

Wherever  these  exiled  Jews  settled  prosper- 
ity accrued  to  the  whole  region.  At  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century  Jerusalem  had  seventy 
Jewish  families ;  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth it  had  fifteen  hundred.  From  having 
been  one  of  the  lowest  and  filthiest  places,  un- 
der the  leadership  of  Obadja  da  Bertinoro,  it 
became  clean,  beautiful,  and  thriving.  Saloni- 
chi  grew  into  a  city  with  more  Jewish  than 
other  inhabitants,  and  the  result  was  its  great 
prosperity  and  commerce.     Every  wise  coun- 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  281 

try  recognized  tliem  as  a  blessing.  In  Poland, 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  tlie  king  and  tlie  no- 
bles feared  their  emigration  to  Turkey.  In 
this  kingdom  there  were  only  five  hundred 
Christian  merchants  to  thirty- two  hundred 
Jewish  ;  and  there  were  three  times  as  many 
artisans  among  them,  gold  and  silver  smiths, 
blacksmiths,  and  weavers.  Ancona,  in  Italy, 
was  made  through  them  a  thriving  seaport,  so 
that  Francesco  della  Eovere  I.,  Duke  of  Ur- 
bino,  invited  the  learned  Molcho  to  settle  at 
Pesero,  in  order  to  attract  thither  the  wealthy 
Jews  of  Ancona,  and  thus  benefit  his  whole 
country.  The  Duke  Ercole  II.,  of  Ferrara, 
strongly  urged  them  to  settle  in  his  domains. 
We  have  already  examined  their  position  in 
Holland  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
this  country,  from  having  been  one  of  the  poor- 
est in  Europe,  before  the  immigration  of  the 
Jews,  still  further  impoverished  by  its  heroic 
war  against  Spain,  began,  from  that  moment, 
to  take  one  of  the  foremost  places  in  the 
world's  commerce.  They  needed  the  capital 
and  the  commercial  knowledge  and  connections 
of  the  Jews  expelled  from  Spain,  and  it  was  in 
great  part  due  to  these  that  the  trade  to  the 
East  and  West  Indies  was  brought  to  them. 


282  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

This  was  universallj  recognized  at  the  time, 
and  all  wise  monarchs  desired  tliem  to  settle  in 
their  country.  So  King  Christian  lY.,  of  Den- 
mark, wrote  a  letter  to  the  head  of  tlie  Amster- 
dam congregation  asking  him  to  encourage 
some  of  his  flock  to  settle  in  Denmark,  prom- 
ising them  freedom  of  religious  worship  and 
other  privileges.  TJie  Duke  of  Savoy  invited 
tliem  to  Nizza,  and  the  Duke  of  Modena  to 
Reggio. 

Nor  is  it  a  mere  coincidence  tliat  witli  tlieir 
settlement  as  merchants  in  England  British 
commerce  took  its  great  rise  in  modern  times. 
In  Menasse  Ben  Israel's  address  to  Cromwell, 
the  fact  of  this  influence  of  the  Jews  is  direct- 
ly impressed ;  he  refers  to  the  exchange  busi- 
ness of  the  Jews,  to  their  commerce  in  dia- 
monds, cochineal,  indigo,  wines,  and  oils;  to  the 
fact  that  the  Maranosof  Spain  intrusted  their 
capital  to  the  Dutch  Jews.  In  the  Republic  of 
Venice,  Luzzato  showed  statistically  that  the 
Jews  of  the  republic  brought  to  it  more  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  ducats  a  year, 
gave  labor  to  four  thousand  workmen,  pro- 
duced the  home  goods  cheaply,  and  introduced 
goods  from  distant  countries. 

Modern  Germany  in  more  recent  times  owes, 


MO^^EY    AND    THE    JEWS  283 

perhaps,  more  to  the  Jews  than  any  other  coun- 
try. Besides  the  beneficial  influence  which 
they  liad  upon  the  spiritual  elevation  of  Ger- 
many out  of  its  humiliating  position  in  the  last 
century,  and  the  awakening  of  their  national 
heroism  by  such  men  as  Moses  Mendelssolm, 
they  are  further  indebted  to  tliem  for  the  in- 
crease of  their  national  prosperity.  In  1755, 
Mendelssohn,  in  his  PhilosopJiical  Conversa- 
tions^ blamed  the  Germans  that  they  did  not 
recognize  their  own  national  genius,  and  bowed 
down  to  French  taste.  Plow  un-German  and 
servile  the  courts  were  in  this  respect  is  uni- 
versally known.  I  can  remember  myself,  when 
I  first  visited  Germany,  the  impression  it  pro- 
duced upon  me  to  find  that  the  language  of 
the  courts  and  of  the  aristocracy  was  still 
French.  The  Jews  of  Germany  have  proved 
themselves  patriots  in  every  respect,  and  the 
w^ealth  of  such  cities  as  Hamburg,  Frankfort, 
Berlin,  and  Nuremberg  is  to  a  great  extent  due 
to  their  influence.  Especially  through  the  set- 
tlement of  so  many  of  their  merchants  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  the  commerce  and  in- 
dustry of  Germany  in  its  relation  to  the  United 
States  has  received  the  strongest  impulse. 
It  may  be  held  at  this  moment  that  com- 


284  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

merce  and  financiering  occupy  too  j)rominent 
a  place  in  modern  economical  life,  and  that 
their  advance  must  now  be  checked.  But  tliis 
does  not  affect  the  great  utility  which  they 
have  had  in  the  past,  and  hence  ought  not  to 
affect  the  gratitude  and  consideration  due  to 
the  Jews  for  having  fostered  it.  Commerce 
and  finance  and  speculation  have  not  for  many 
years  been  the  monopoly  of  the  Jews,  and 
'duj  opposition  to  the  spread  of  these,  by  legis- 
lation or  otherwise,  is  untrue  and  defeats  its 
own  end  if  it  hides  its  purpose  and  fans  its 
violence  under  the  cloak  of  national  and  racial 
prejudice. 

The  restrictions  in  the  free  choice  of  their 
occupation  drove  the  Jews  into  mercantile 
pursuits;  but  I  maintain  that  they  are  not 
naturally  predisposed  to  them  ;  that  their  sub- 
mission has  not  produced  in  them  as  an  essen- 
tial characteristic  the  money  greed  with  which 
they  are  ignorantly  charged. 

The  impression  which  the  study  of  their 
past  produces  leads  me  to  believe  that  without 
such  compulsory  restrictions  on  the  part  of 
their  enemies,  the  ideals  of  their  life  are  essen- 
tially found  in  agricultural  pursuits,  on  tlie 
one  hand,  and  in  scholarship  on  the  other. 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  285 

The  ancient  Jews  of  tlie  Old  Testament 
were  cliiefly  an  agricnltnral  or  a  nomadic  peo- 
ple. It  is  under  tlie  shade  of  their  vineyards 
or  their  olive-trees,  or  in  the  tent  of  the  shep- 
herd, that  the  picture  of  happy  life  is  localized 
by  them.  Ranke  speaks  of  the  earliest  tribes 
as  "a  wandering  tribal  army  of  one  single 
caste,  all  of  them  warriors ;  the  portion  of 
them  selected  for  the  service  of  the  sanctuary 
even  held  no  pre-eminent  position." 

Those  tribes  who  lived  on  the  sea-coast  no 
doubt  were  occupied  with  navigation  and  com- 
merce, and  herein  joined  the  Phoenicians ;  but 
the  main  body,  living  in  the  interior,  were  an 
agricultural  people.  The  gardens  of  Babylon, 
the  elaborate  system  of  canals  for  the  irriga- 
tion of  this  country,  marked  it  as  one  of  the 
most  fertile  districts,  most  highly  and  intelli- 
gently cultivated,  of  the  ancient  world. 

This  essential  feature  of  the  earliest  Israel- 
ites maintained  itself  in  the  Middle  Ages  in 
those  Eastern  Jewish  tribes  to  whom  reference 
has  been  made  in  Chapter  III.  In  Europe, 
too,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  down  to  the  time  of 
Charlemagne,  wherever  they  were  not  prevent- 
ed by  the  tyrannical  majority  among  whom 
they  lived,  they  were  also  the  possessors  and 


286  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

tillers  of  land,  besides  being  tradespeople  and 
navigators. 

The  sayings  and  teachings  of  their  leaders 
and  wise  men  directly  bear  out  this  fact.  With 
few  exceptions  these  teachers  and  priests  were 
not  paid.  The  changes  in  the  practice  of  their 
learned  men  corresponded  to  the  change  from 
the  life  of  the  Socratic  and  earlier  philosophers 
to  the  custom  of  the  sophists  in  Greece,  though 
I  do  not  believe  that  it  ever  reached  so  com- 
plete a  development  in  the  mercenary  direc- 
tion among  the  Jews.  Some  of  the  most  cel- 
ebrated of  their  teachers  and  leaders  were 
themselves  farmers,  taking  active  part  in  agri- 
cultural work ;  so  the  great  Huna,  who  con- 
tinued his  agricultural  labors  even  when  he 
was  chief  in  the  third  century.  Wealth  de- 
rived from  field  labor  seems  even  to  have  been 
prized  more  highly  than  when  it  sprang  from 
trade,  as  is  borne  out  by  the  aphorism  of 
Kabbi  Arica,  addressed  to  his  son  :  "  Better  a 
small  measure  from  the  fields  than  a  large  one 
from  the  storehouse"  (trade  or  commerce). 

I  cannot  find  a  trace  which  would  justify 
the  opinion  that  the  Jews  ever  were  character- 
ized by  the  love  of  money  for  its  own  sake. 
I  should  say  that  the  typical  miser  is  a  rare 


MONEY    AXD    THE    JEWS  287 

figure  among  them.  The  love  of  money  ap- 
pears to  have  been  only  the  love  of  that  which 
money  brings ;  and  among  these  desirable  ob- 
jects I  should  say  that  their  tastes  led  more 
towards  the  spiritual  than  the  material  region. 
Negatively,  I  should  say  that  those  people  care 
least  for  money,  as  such,  who  are  most  willing 
to  part  with  it  for  charitable  purposes.  Tliat 
the  Jews  are  pre-eminent  in  their  charities, 
from  tlie  earliest  times  down  to  our  days,  can- 
not be  controverted.  One  of  the  causes  of  the 
admiration  which  Julianus  Apostata  had  for 
the  Jews  was  their  charity  to  the  poor,  so  that 
none  of  their  community  was  ever  allowed  to 
suffer  want.  I  will  give  two  characteristic 
instances  of  the  life  of  the  rich  during  the 
third  century,  as  related  by  Graetz : 

Huna  (born  220,  died  297)  was  chief  of  the 
school  of  Sura  and  the  most  prominent  teacher 
of  his  ao^e.  Althouo-h  related  to  the  Exilarch 
of  the  period,  he  was  not  himself  wealthy. 
The  small  farm  which  he  possessed  he  culti- 
vated himself;  and  he  was  wont  to  say,  when 
called  upon  to  act  as  judge,  "Send  me  a  sub- 
stitute to  work  my  field  and  I  will  be  your 
judge."  He  often  returned  from  his  work 
with  his  spade  over  his  shoulder,  and,  walking 


288  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION^ 

thus,  lie  often  met  tlie  richest  man  of  Babylon, 
a  certain  Chama  Bar  Amilai.  This  wealthy 
man  was  also  the  most  liberal  and  charitable 
man  in  the  community.  It  was  said  of  him 
that  he  resembled  Father  Abraham  in  having 
attained  the  ideal  in  the  performance  of  the 
Jewish  virtue,  to  be  the  father  of  the  poor. 
Day  and  night  the  cooks  of  his  house  were  at 
work,  and  there  were  doors  on  every  side  into 
which  the  necessitous  could  enter,  and  whoever 
was  hungry  was  satisfied.  When  Chama  was 
walking  he  kept  his  hand  in  his  money-bag,  so 
that  a  shy  pauper  should  not  be  placed  in  the 
trying  position  of  waiting  for  his  alms.  During 
the  famine  he  caused  wheat  and  barley  to  be 
placed  at  night-time  in  tlie  houses  of  those 
poor  who  were  kept  by  shame  from  entering 
among  the  crowd  of  beggars.  lie  was  free 
from  all  pride,  and  whenever  he  met  Iluna  re- 
turning home  from  his  labor  with  his  spade 
over  his  shoulder,  he  manifested  his  reverence 
in  begging  to  carry  tlie  spade  for  him.  Huna 
would  never  submit  to  this,  for  he  said  Chama 
was  not  accustomed  to  carry  a  spade  in  Baby- 
lon, and  that  thus  he  would  not  allow  him  to 
carry  it  there.  Huna  came  into  great  prop- 
erty, and  then  he  gave  part  of  the  proceeds 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  289 

of  the  farm  to  the  field  laborers — an  early  form 
of  co-operation.  He  made  the  noblest  use  of 
his  fortune.  When  from  the  Syrian  desert 
the  cyclones  came,  he  would  be  carried  about 
in  his  litter  and  inspect  the  houses  of  Sura,  and 
would  cause  every  unsound  wall  to  be  torn 
down  and  repaired,  paying  for  it  in  case  the 
owner  was  not  able  to  do  so.  During  meal- 
time lie  had  all  the  doors  of  his  house  opened, 
and  made  the  announcement,  "  Whoever  is  in 
want,  let  him  satisfy  himself."  Among  the 
eight  hundred  pupils  who  attended  his  lectures 
he  sustained  all  those  who  were  poor. 

The  innumerable  instances  of  magnificent 
charity  to  their  persecuted  brothers  during 
the  Inquisition  need  not  be  enumerated.  But 
this  charity  w^as  not,  nor  has  it  ever  been, 
restricted  to  their  own  race  and  nation.  I 
believe  that,  considering  the  cruelty  with 
which  they  have  been  treated  by  Christians 
for  ages,  vindictiveness  cannot  in  any  way  be 
considered  one  of  their  characteristics.  Dur- 
ing, the  Hussite  war,  in  1421,  the  imperial 
army  massacred  the  Jews  as  the  Crusaders  had 
done.  But  when  they  suffered  defeat  at  Saaz 
and  were  driven  tlirough  the  country  in  con- 
fusion, many  of  these  soldiers,  who  had  sworn 

19 


290  THE    JEWISH    QUESTIOISr 

death  to  the  Jews,  came  starved  to  their  doors 
and  were  fed  by  them.  When,  in  tlie  six- 
teenth century.  King  Sebastian  of  Portugal, 
with  the  flower  of  his  army,  was  defeated  in 
Africa,  and  the  Portuguese  prisoners  were  sold 
as  slaves  in  the  market  at  Fez,  the  knights 
and  nobles  considered  it  good-fortune  if  they 
were  bought  by  the  grandchildren  of  the  Jews 
whom  their  ancestors  liad  so  cruelly  persecut- 
ed, for  they  were  sure  of  kind  treatment  from 
them.  But  I  hardly  think  I  need  add  other 
instances;  the  contrary  seems  to  me  never  to 
have  been  seriously  maintained. 

If,  now,  we  turn  to  the  mediaeval  history  of 
the  relation  of  the  Jews  to  the  princes  and  the 
ruling  classes,  it  seems  to  me  beyond  all  doubt 
to  be  tlie  fact  that  the  money  greed  was  on 
the  side  of  the  Christian  oppressors,  and  not 
on  that  of  the  Jews.  The  relation  which  these 
rulers  had  to  the  Jews  was  that  of  a  sleeping, 
un working  partner  in  the  financial  transac- 
tions of  the  Jews — nay,  in  every  craft  or  trade 
which  they  practised — without  any  fairness  of 
contract  on  their  part,  generally  coupled  with 
the  most  cruel  robbery.  I  cannot  recall  which 
of  the  great  historians  of  the  Middle  Ages  it 
is — I  believe  it  is  Dr.  Stubbs,  the  Bishop  of 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  291 

Chester  —  wlio  has  said  that  tlie  greed  for 
money  is  one  of  the  most  striking  features  in 
the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages.  This  must 
impress  itself  upon  every  student  who  goes 
deeper  into  the  history  of  that  age.  And  this 
is  so  in  spite  of  what  1  have  said  concerning 
the  ideal  standards  of  public  distinction,  of 
chivalry  as  opposed  to  that  of  modern  times. 
For  these  standards  remained,  however  much 
tlie  individual  actions  of  even  the  school-book 
heroes  may  have  belied  them.  I  here  give 
but  a  few  instances,  to  which  many  more 
might  be  added. 

Louis  YII.  of  France  was  friendly  to  the 
Jews.  He  had  hardly  closed  his  eyes  when 
his  son,  Philip  Auguste,  feeling  oppressed  by 
the  want  of  money,  turned  upon  the  Jews  to 
remedy  this  evil.  Though  in  France  at  that 
time  comparatively  few  trafficked  in  money, 
and  though  bishops,  counts,  and  barons  inter- 
vened in  their  favor  and  begged  to  have  them 
remain,  they  were  expelled  from  France  in 
the  twelfth  century,  and  in  the  following 
manner : 

On  January  19,  1180,  without  any  definite 
charge  against  them,  he  caused  all  the  Jews 
in  France  to  be  captured  and  to  be  thrown 


292  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

into  prison  while  tliey  were  assembled  in  tlieir 
synagogues  for  Sabbatli  worship.  lie  had 
counted  upon  a  heavy  ransom  from  them,  and 
after  they  had  paid  fifteen  hundred  marks  in 
silver  they  were  set  at  liberty.  But  this  was 
only  the  prelude  to  the  tragedy.  Before  the 
expiration  of  that  same  year  he  declared  all 
debts  of  Christians  to  Jews  cancelled ;  but  took 
care  to  claim  one-fif tli  of  the  debts  from  which 
tliey  were  thus  released  in  toto  from  the  Chris- 
tian debtors.  The  hermit  of  Yincennes  en- 
couraged him  in  this  action,  holding  that  to 
rob  the  Jews  of  their  wealth  was  a  good  work 
in  the  eyes  of  God.  Not  satisfied  with  thus 
liaving  made  beggars  of  them,  he  put  out  an 
edict  shortly  after  this  that  all  the  Jews  of 
the  North  of  France  had  to  leave  the  country 
from  April  to  June  of  the  year  1181.  They 
were  only  allowed  to  sell  their  movable  prop- 
erty, while  their  land,  vineyards,  barns,  and 
wine-presses  should  go  to  the  king.  The  syn- 
agogues were  turned  into  churches.  But  a 
very  small  proportion  of  the  Jews  escaped 
this  fate  through  conversion.  The  charges 
which  were  brought  against  the  Jews  of  mur- 
dering children  and  of  extortion  in  money 
matters  were  absolutely  unfounded. 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  293 

With  Henry  III.  in  England  the  Jews  met 
with  a  similar  fate,  and  could  only  find  pro- 
tection through  the  money  paid  to  the  king. 
In  the  thirteenth  century,  when  the  German 
Jews  wished  to  escape  oppression  under  the 
leadership  of  the  Kabbi  of  Kothenburg,  and 
were  about  to  emigrate  to  Persia,  where  there 
was  a  prospect  of  greater  freedom,  the  Em- 
peror Kudolph  had  the  rabbi  thrown  into 
prison  at  Ensisheim.  He  was  well  treated  in 
prison,  for  the  emperor  was  not  bent  upon 
punishing  him  ;  he  only  wished  to  retain  him 
in  his  country  because  he  feared  that  through 
a  large  emigration  of  the  Jews  the  imperial 
treasury  might  lose  a  great  portion  of  its  in- 
come. Meanwhile  the  Christian  citizens  of 
Mayence  and  of  other  cities  had  already  seized 
upon  the  houses  and  lands  of  the  Jews  who 
had  started  to  emigrate ;  but  the  emperor 
claimed  these  as  his  own,  and  took  them  away. 
The  Jews  of  Germany  then  offered  the  em- 
peror twenty  thousand  marks  in  silver  if  the 
murderers  of  the  Jews  of  Oberwesel  and  Bop- 
part  were  brought  to  justice  and  Rabbi  Meir 
released.  The  emperor  accepted  the  money, 
but  did  not  carry  out  the  conditions,  and  Eabbi 
Me'ir  was  kept  in  prison  for  five  years.    Let  it 


294  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

be  that  the  emperor  wished  to  get  further  sums 
out  of  the  Jews,  or  that,  as  is  said,  the  rabbi 
did  not  wish  to  be  liberated  in  this  manner 
(for  he  feared  that  seizing  upon  rabbis  might 
be  used  as  a  further  means  of  bLackmail) ;  at 
all  events,  the  rabbi  remained  in  prison  for  a 
further  five  years,  and  died  there,  his  body 
being  left  without  interment  by  the  emperor's 
successor,  until  a  Jew  of  Frankfort,  Siiskind 
Alexander  Wimpfen,  succeeded  in  procuring 
the  corj)se  for  a  high  sum,  and  then  buried 
the  rabbi  at  Worms. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  Philip  IV.  (Le 
Beau),  who  had  before  protected  the  Jews, 
needing  money  (the  popular  song  of  the  time 
said  '^that  not  the  chicken  in  the  pot  was  saved 
from  the  clutches  of  the  king"),  gave  a  secret 
order  to  all  his  officers  in  the  whole  empire  to 
seize  upon  all  the  Jews  in  his  kingdom  on  the 
same  day ;  and  while  they  were  celebrating 
their  day  of  atonement,  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren were  thus  thrown  into  prison.  They  were 
then  told  that,  leaving  behind  them  their  prop- 
erty, as  well  as  the  certificates  of  debts,  they 
were  to  leave  the  country  within  a  month. 
The  cause  for  this  cruel  action  was,  in  the  first 
place,  the  greed  of  money ;  but  another  cir- 


MONEY   AND   THE   JEWS*  295 

ciimstance  contributed  to  it.  The  German  em- 
peror, Albrecht,  had  demanded  of  Philip  the 
kingdom  of  Aries;  further,  the  crown  of  thorns 
of  Christ,  which  he  was  supposed  to  have  in 
his  possession ;  and,  finally,  to  cede  to  him  his 
rights  over  the  Jews  which  belonged  to  him 
as  the  successor  of  the  Emperor  Vespasian, 
Titus,  and  Charlemagne ;  that  is,  to  give  him 
a  part  of  the  hard-earned  bread  of  the  Jew^s. 
Philip  is  said  to  have  consulted  his  jurists  as 
to  these  rights  over  the  Jews ;  and,  as  they 
were  held  to  belong  to  the  emperor,  he  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  stripping  them  naked  of 
their  possessions  and  sending  them  abroad. 
And  thus  over  a  hundred  thousand  people 
w^ere  expelled  from  the  land  which  their  an- 
cestors had  held  even  in  the  time  of  the  Ro- 
man Republic,  long  before  the  advent  of  the 
Franks  and  of  Christianity.  The  king's  ofiicers 
only  allowed  them  the  clothes  which  they  wore 
and  rations  for  one  day. 

About  the  same  time  a  similar  fate  threat- 
ened them  from  Pope  John  XII.,  which  was 
only  averted  by  payment  of  twenty  thou- 
sand ducats,  through  the  intercession  of  their 
friend  King  Robert  of  Naples.  The  ground 
of  this  disturbance  was  that  Sangisa,  sister  of 


296  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

the  Pope,  had  told  lier  brother  that  she  had 
seen  Jews  mocking  the  crucifix  during  a  pro- 
cession at  Rome. 

Tlie  cause  of  all  this  brutality  was  simply 
the  money  greed  of  tlie  torturers.  When  in 
the  fourteenth  century  there  was  a  general 
massacre  of  Jews  in  Germany  during  the  black 
death,  and  there  were  all  kinds  of  charges 
afloat  against  them,  such  as  that  they  had  poi- 
soned the  rivers  of  Germany,  the  honest 
Christian  chronicler,  Closener  of  Strasburg, 
says :  "  Money  was  tlie  poison  which  caused 
the  Jews  to  be  murdered." 

It  is  also  significant  to  find,  as  regards  the 
good  these  people  did  to  the  countries  in  which 
they  lived,  that  in  1360  the  Dauphin  Charles 
of  France  issued  a  decree  in  w^liich  he  invited 
the  Jews  to  return  to  France  with  the  consent 
of  the  higher  and  lower  clergy,  the  higher  and 
lower  nobility,  and  all  his  citizens;  that  they 
should  come  for  twenty  years,  freely  follow 
their  vocations,  and  possess  land  and  houses. 
He  granted  them  commercial  privileges,  legit- 
imized tlie  taking  of  interest  up  to  eighty  per 
cent.,  and  protected  their  rights  of  pawn.  He 
also  bound  himself  not  to  burn  the  copies  of 
their  Bible  and  Talmud,  as  had  so  frequently 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  297 

been  done.  But,  of  course,  they  had  to  pay 
for  this  privilege  in  heavy  taxes.  Charles  V. 
confirmed  this  right. 

The  stories  making  manifest  this  same  greedy 
spirit  on  tlie  part  of  the  oppressors  during  the 
Spanish  Inquisition  and  their  expulsion  from 
Spain  are  too  numerous  to  dwell  upon.  But 
to  take  the  most  prominent  case,  that  of  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella  themselves.  The  Jews 
were  here  not  punished  on  the  ground  of  usu- 
ry ;  but  their  religious  influence  is  given  as 
the  main  ground.  Still,  these  monarchs  were 
not  deterred  in  their  cruelty  by  the  gains  to 
their  exchequer.  It  is  characteristic  that  in 
expelling  the  Jews  they  generally  allowed 
them  to  take  away  with  them  their  goods, 
''but  no  gold  or  silver  coins,  or  goods  of  which 
the  export  was  forbidden."  It  was  difficult 
for  them  to  sell  their  property,  and  Ferdinand 
took  possession  of  much  of  this,  on  the  ground 
of  covering  their  debts,  and  to  satisfy  the  de- 
mands which  the  monasteries  brouMit  a^inst 
them.  The  account  of  their  sufferings  in 
leaving  their  homes  is  heart-rending.  They 
were  cheated  at  every  step,  and  they  had  to 
buy  their  right  to  pass  tlirough  Portugal  from 
the  king  of  that  country. 


298  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

In  1598  tlie  Emperor  Maximilian  revoked 
the  protective  privileges  of  the  Jews,  and  per- 
mitted the  town  council  of  Nuremberg  to 
expel  them.  He  granted  this  boon  to  the  citj 
of  Nuremberg  "  because  of  the  fidelity  which 
this  city  had  ever  shown  to  the  imperial 
house  " ;  but  at  the  same  time  it  was  stipulat- 
ed that  all  the  houses,  synagogues,  and  even 
the  cemetery,  should  go  to  the  imperial 
treasury. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  one  million  two 
hundred  thousand  crusados  were  paid  to  Phil- 
ip III.  of  Portugal  to  buy  off  the  one  hundred 
and  fifty  Maranos  who  were  condemned  by 
the  Inquisition.  Beziel  Masserano  had  to  arm 
himself  with  two  thousand  scudi  when  he  went 
to  Rome  to  beg  from  Pious  lY.  that  the  burn- 
ing of  the  Talmud  be  discontinued.  The 
baseness,  coupled  with  the  cruelty  which 
meets  one  at  every  step  in  reading  this  por- 
tion of  history,  is  positively  nauseating ;  but 
the  conclusion  to  which  one  invariably  comes 
is  that  the  money  greed  was  with  the  Chris- 
tian rulers  and  their  representatives  of  chival- 
ry, and  not  with  the  Jews. 

The  spiritual  and  unmercenary  character  of 
Judaism  becomes  still  more  manifest  when  we 


MONEY    AND   THE    JEWS  299 

recall  the  fact,  to  which  reference  has  already 
been  made  in  previous  chapters,  of  the  intel- 
lectual aspirations  of  the  Jewish  people  as  a 
people,  and  of  the  prestige  which  intellectual 
distinction  and  pursuits  possess.  I  venture  to 
say  that  among  no  people  and  in  no  period  of 
history  has  the  man  of  learning,  the  thinker, 
scliolar,  poet,  and  man  of  science  had  so  high 
a  position  recognized  by  all  portions  of  the 
community  as  is,  and  has  been,  the  case  among 
the  Jews — I  mean  that  tliese  intellectual  work- 
ers enjoyed  as  much  prestige  as  any  statesman, 
soldier,  or  man  of  wealth.  And  I  believe  that 
this  striving  after  intellectual  superiority  is,  of 
all,  one  of  the  most  marked  characteristics  of 
the  Jewish  peojDle.  Though  from  the  begin- 
ning they  did  not  favor  the  one-sided  develop- 
ment of  study,  even  among  their  rabbis,  and 
though  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  preserve  the 
normality  of  life  so  that  the  scholar  and  preach- 
er should  follow  some  worldly  trade  or  profes- 
sion, I  hardly  think  that  any  other  nation  can 
show  up  in  all  its  purity  the  type  of  the  disin- 
terested, unworldly  student  as  can  the  Jews. 

Many  types  can  be  found  like  Moses  l^ar- 
boni  (Maestro  Vidal),  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
who  crossed  the  Pyrenees  to  Toledo  and  back 


300  THE    JEAVISH    QUESTION 

again  on  foot,  in  order  that  he  might  learn, 
and  losing  all  he  had  wlien  tlie  mob  fell  upon 
the  community  at  Cervera  during  the  black 
death — and,  what  he  deplored  most,  all  his 
books — he  quietly  continued  his  work  where 
he  had  left  off;  the  purest  type  of  philoso- 
pher, Spinoza,  living  in  his  garret,  supporting 
his  meagre  bodily  existence  by  grinding  spec- 
tacle glasses  while  he  wrote  his  immortal 
works,  refusing  brilliant  offers  of  advancement 
— these  types  are  far  from  having  died  out 
even  in  our  days.  Men  like  Bern  ays,  the 
editor  of  Ileraclitus,  and  many  living  schol- 
ars and  students  in  Germany  and  elsewhere, 
might  have  served  as  prototypes  of  Carlyle's 
Teufelsdrockh  and  George  Eliot's  Morde- 
cai.  And  the  rarer  these  students  grow  in 
the  universities  of  Germany  and  elsewhere, 
the  greater  relatively  is  their  number  among 
scores  and  hundreds  of  Jewish  students  and 
rabbis. 

There  may  be  —  owing  to  their  past  his- 
tory, there  must  needs  be — many  Jewish  bank- 
ers ;  but  I  feel  convinced  that,  if  there  were 
accurate  statistics  on  this  point,  it  would  be 
found  that  in  the  proportion  of  those  w^lio 
devote  themselves  to  sj)iritual  and  intellectual 


MONEY    AND    THE    JEWS  301 

vocations  which  are  not  considered  to  bring 
immediate  material  gain,  the  modern  Jews  of 
Europe  would  come  out  liighest  in  the  scale. 
Wherever  they  can,  wherever  they  are  allowed 
to  do  so  since  the  restrictions  in  the  choice  of 
work  have  been  taken  from  them,  the  Jews 
leave  the  sphere  of  immediate  money-making. 
It  is  true  there  are  not  among  them  many 
farm  laborers ;  but  they  have  been  kept  from 
this  pursuit  for  centuries — the  pursuit  which 
needs  a  peculiar  physical  and  moral  predispo- 
sition. And  now  that  we  find  that  the  farm 
laborers  are  flocking  to  the  large  centres  (not 
perhaps  to  their  own  advantage,  nor  to  that  of 
the  community),  how  can  we  in  reason  demand 
that  those  who  have  not  been  bred  in  the  tra- 
dition of  such  occupation  should  at  once  run 
counter  to  the  general  current  and  take  to 
such  work  ?  Still,  in  those  districts  where  they 
have  been  allowed  to  till  the  land  they  have 
in  modern  times  soon  manifested  again  this 
earliest  predisposition  of  the  ancient  Hebrew 
people;  and  even  the  newly- formed  agricult- 
ural communities  are,  according  to  all  ac- 
counts, flourishing  and  doing  good  work. 
And  there  can  be  no  doubt  also  that,  for  the 
Jews  more  than  for  any  other  people,  the  en- 


302  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

couragement  to  agricultural  pursuits  is  called 
for,  to  rectify  tlie  physical  and  spiritual  defi- 
ciencies which  have  been  produced  by  the 
cruel  oppression  of  their  Christian  contempo- 
raries. 


VII 

M.  ANATOLE  LEROY-BEAULIEU  AND  THE  JEWS 

Since  the  foregoing  cliajoters  were  written, 
a  book  has  appeared  by  M.  Anatole  Leroy- 
Beanlieu,. dealing  with  the  whole  of  the  Jew- 
ish question,  entitled  Israel  cliez  les  Nations 
(Paris,  1893).  The  attitude  of  the  author  is 
certainly  not.  that  of  a  Jew,  though  he  brings 
to  bear  upon  his  discussion  of  the  question  an 
amount  of  sympathetic  study  of  Jewish  life 
and  thought  such  as  no  other  writer  upon 
this  subject  has  manifested.  His  point  of 
view  in  dealing  with  the  Jews  is,  as  he  says  in 
his  preface,  that  of  a  Christian  and  a  French 
man  ("  Ge  livre  a  ete  ecrit  jpar  un  Chretien 
et  icn  Frangais^^),  If  we  add  to  these  char- 
acteristics the  eminent  qualities  of  which  the 
author  proves  himself  to  be  possessed,  as  a 
man  deeply  imbued  with  the  scientific  spirit 
and  with  historical  sympathy,  we  have  indi- 
cated the  main  causes  which  have  led  to  the 


304  THE    JEWISH    QUESTIOX 

production  of  so  remarkable  a  book.  As  a 
true  Christian,  he  has  shown  himself  moved  by 
a  powerful  impulse  of  charity.  As  a  French- 
man, he  is  the  inheritor  of  those  liberal  tradi- 
tions which  have  ever  led  to  the  emancipation 
of  the  world  by  its  opposition  to  all  the  in- 
justice of  sterile  and  selfish  prerogatives,  and 
by  its  assertion  of  the  rights  of  man.  As  a 
man  of  science,  he  has  conscientiously  striven 
to  discover  the  causes  of  phenomena,  even  the 
hidden  ones,  after  he  has  determined  what  the 
phenomena  are,  and  whether  they  lend  them- 
selves to  scientific  treatment.  Finally,  his  his- 
torical sense  has  enabled  him  not  only  to 
sound  the  depths  of  life  that  has  long  since 
vanished  from  the  scene  of  action,  but  also 
to  enter  into  the  thoughts,  feelings,  and  mem- 
ories of  people  still  living,  but  living  under 
entirely  different  conditions  from  those  sur- 
rounding his  own  life,  and  resting  upon  tra- 
ditions arid  customs,  firmly  rooted  and  even 
crystallized,  with  which  his  past  has  had  no 
connection. 

So  much  that  is  said  by  me  has  been  seen 
and  has  been  expressed  by  him,  and  his  ac- 
count is  based  upon  so  much  wider  an  acquaint- 
ance with  Jewish  life,  and  is  put  in  so  beauti- 


LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE   JEWS  305 

fill  a  form,  and  in  a  style  so  concise,  incisive, 
and  still  elegant,  that  at  the  first  reading  I 
considered  my  own  work  grotesquely  super- 
fluous beside  such  a  presentation  of  the  sub- 
ject. 

But  upon  second  thought  I  have  found  that 
there  are  questions  touched  upon  in  my  book 
which  did  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  the 
French  author's  work,  and  tliat  these  may  be 
of  some  interest  or  importance.  Furthermore, 
the  fact  that  my  point  of  departure  in  this  ex- 
amination of  the  Jewish  question  is  not  the 
same  as  his,  may  have  led  me  in  a  few  instances 
to  conclusions  differing  somewhat  from  his 
own. 

Tlie  main  and  fundamental  difference  be- 
tween M.  Leroy-Beaulieu  and  myself  lies  in 
the  fact  that,  on  the  one  hand,  he  distinctly 
and  consciously  deals  with  the  subject  as  a 
Frenchman  and  a  Christian,  however  scientific 
and  sympathetic  he  may  have  been  ;  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  he  looks  upon  the  Jews  as  a 
whole,  scattered  though  tliey  be  over  the  face 
of  tlie  earth.  My  aim,  however,  has  been  to 
avoid  any  racial  or  religious  limitations  in  the 
primary  point  of  view  chosen  for  the  sifting 
of  this  question,  and  to  look  at  many  of  the 
20 


306  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

difBcnlties  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  thor- 
oughly oecidentalized  and  modernized  Jew  of 
some  Western  country.  I  cannot  judge  how 
far  I  have  been  able  to  maintain  consistently 
this  point  of  view.  I  have  thus  also  limited 
my  scope  as  regards  the  Jews  themselves,  in 
every  question  which  has  actual  practical  bear- 
ings upon  their  life,  to  the  educated  citizens 
fully  established  in  our  Western  communities; 
and  my  treatment  is  much  more  limited  in 
scope  and  restricted  in  its  sphere  of  observation 
than  is  that  of  the  French  savant. 

On  the  other  hand,  this  limitation  may  be 
conducive  to  more  exact  results  in  a  few  defi- 
nite instances,  and  it  is  from  this  side  that  I 
would  venture  to  criticise  one  or  two  features 
in  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu's  book,  the  whole  of 
which  I  so  thoroughly  and  deeply  appreciate 
and  admire. 

The  points  in  which  I  diifer  from  M.  Leroy- 
Beaulieu  are  those  contained  in  his  two  chap- 
ters on  the  physiology  and  psychology  of  the 
modern  Jew.  I  even  venture  to  believe  that 
some  of  his  remarks  will  not  bear  close  analy- 
sis when  compared  with  what  he  says  in  these 
same  chapters,  and  especially  with  what  he 
has  said  of  the  Jews  in  the  other  portions  of 


LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND   THE    JEWS  307 

the  book.  I  refer  to  liis  remarks  on  tlie  ideal 
position  of  conscience  and  honor  in  the  life 
of  the  modern  Jew.  The  mistaken  judgment 
which  I  believe  he  lias  there  formed  is,  to  my 
mind,  due  to  the  very  difference  in  the  stand- 
point which  he  has  chosen  to  adopt  in  his 
book,  in  contradistinction  to  the  one  which  I 
have  endeavored  to  hold  in  examining  this 
complex  question. 

The  first  of  these  misleading  causes,  in  my 
judgment,  lies  in  the  great  width  and  diver- 
sity of  the  people  upon  whom  he  is  general- 
izing. He  is  really  dealing  with  subtle  and 
delicate  ideas,  such  as  those  of  conscience  and 
honor,  even  in  their  most  remote  and  delicate 
bearings  on  social  life  as  they  affect  the  most 
developed  stages  of  our  Western  civilized  in- 
tercourse, and  here  again  (Jielas)  appealing 
to  a  comparatively  limited  section  of  our  own 
communities.  He  is  treating  of  the  noblest 
ideas  of  the  noblest  men  and  women  among 
us ;  and  at  the  same  time,  as  regards  the  Jews, 
he  is  focusinp;  so  delicate  a  detail  throuo^h  the 
endless  horizon-line  of  the  scattered  Jewish 
people  all  over  the  modern  world,  living  under 
conditions  so  diversified  in  their  physical  and 
moral  characteristics.    But  when  dealino-  with 


308  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

tlie  characteristics  of  modern  Occidental  life, 
the  relation  which  the  Jews  hold  to  these 
can'  only  be  fairly  estimated  in  considering 
'  those  Jews  whom,  by  origin  and  tradition,  we 
have  called  the  Occidental  Jew.  To  allow  the 
Jews  of  Kiissia,  Russian  Poland,  Galicia,  the 
Turkish  Empire,  nay,  even  Africa,  to  come 
into  consideration  while  we  are  considering 
these  complex  characteristics  of  essentially 
Western  civilization  lowers  and  vitiates,  or,  at 
all  events,  confuses  our  just  estimate  of  the 
Western  Jews'  claims.  If  we  were  studying, 
for  instance,  the  position  which  the  Germans 
of  Slav  origin  in  the  German  Empire  hold 
with  regard  to  some  of  the  higher  refinements 
of  German  life,  it  would  not  add  to  the  clear- 
ness of  our  investigation  or  the  accuracy  of 
our  results  if  we  were  to  introduce  at  the 
same  time  an  estimate  of  the  claims  which 
the  serf-like  Slav  peasantry  of  Southern  Rus- 
sia have  to  these  qualities.  His  own  investi- 
gation in  other  portions  of  the  book  with 
regard  to  the  ethnology  of  the  Jews  living 
among  ns  agree  with  my  own  observations. 
The  Jews  of  our  Western  States  and  nations, 
with  whom  we  are  dealing  in  practical  ques- 
tions of  our  modern  life,  have  lived  among  us 


LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE   JEWS  309 

for  many  ages  and  are  essentially  of  us,  only 
differing  individually  among  each  other  and 
from  us  as  we  differ  from  one  another,  ac- 
cording to  our  several  conditions  and  occupa- 
tions in  life  and  the  religious  views  and  moral 
education  which  each  of  us  may  have  had  in- 
stilled in  youth.  And  herein  there  is  not  so 
great  a  unity  among  us,  whatever  our  origin 
or  the  country  we  may  live  in.  And  when 
the  broad  characteristics  and  ideals  of  our 
modern  Occidental  life  are  discussed,  I  hold 
it  to  be  radically  wrong  for  a  Frenchman,  or 
an  Englishman,  or  a  German,  or  an  American 
dealing  with  his  fellow-countrymen  of  Jewish 
extraction  in  the  light  of  such  questions,  to 
use  the  pronoun  ^'they"  at  all.  It  can  only  be 
a  question  of  "  we."  ]VL  Leroy-Beaulieu  has 
mentioned  individually  a  sufficient  number  of 
his  own  Jewish  countrymen  of  distinction,  so 
varied  in  their  talents,  occupations,  and  tastes — 
but  all  of  them  true  Frenchmen  ;  and  the  same 
can  be  so  readily  done  for  every  other  Western 
nation,  that  it  would  be  absurd  for  any  prac- 
tical purpose  to  compare  the  ideals  and  con- 
ceptions of  conscience  and  honor  of  these  peo- 
ple with  those  of  a  Jew  of  Smyrna,  Cairo,  or 
Morocco,  and  to  contrast  the  net  result  of  such 


310  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

comparison  with  our  own  local  ideas  on  this 
subject. 

The  Jews  of  whom  I  am  speaking  have 
come  within  the  range  of  tlie  same  historical 
and  national  influences  to  which  we  have  all 
been  subjected  in  the  formation  of  our  char- 
acters— especially  as  regards  our  ideals  of  con- 
science and  of  honor.  I  will  give  one  instance 
to  illustrate  my  meaning. 

I  was  once  present  at  the  discussion  of  the 
relation  between  England  and  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  we  were  dwelling 
upon  the  changes  in  the  popular  feeling  of 
Englishmen  and  Americans  to  one  another.  I 
was  especially  interested  in  the  contribution 
of  an  American  Jew  to  this  discussion.  He 
informed  us  of  the  struo:2:le  he  had  to  under- 
go  to  overcome  his  national  prejudice  against 
the  English.  "  You  see,"  he  said,  "  my  boyish 
days  fell  into  the  period  of  the  American 
Civil  War.  My  character  with  regard  to  pa- 
triotism and  national  prejudice  received  its 
stamp  from  this  period  (for  it  is  no  doubt  in 
boyhood  that  one's  character  is  formed  in  this 
respect),  and,  as  there  was  a  bitter  feeling 
against  England  owing  to  the  attitude  of  the 
English  towards  the  North,  I  have  since  had 


LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE    JEWS  311 

much  trouble  in  eradicating  the  influence  of 
such  lasting  impressions  of  early  life."  '^ 

But  I  was  especially  interested  in  the  pict- 
ure which,  at  my  request,  he  gave  of  his 
boyish  life,  and  I  venture  to  quote  from  it : 

"  We  were  a  large  family  of  boys,  and  our 
life,  when  freed  from  our  school  work,  had  a 
definite  war-like  stamp.  We  were  constantly 
playing  at  soldiers,  building  forts,  fighting  the 
rebels,  and  we  were  only  too  glad  when  we 
found  real  enemies  in  a  set  of  rough  street 
boys,  who,  jealous  of  our  soldiers'  uniforms 
and  the  forts  we  had  built,  ventured  to  attack 
us.  The  fight  and  the  charges  were  really 
serious,  as  we  tried  to  maintain  the  mock  mil- 
itary discipline  against  the  marauding  host  of 
stone  -  throwing  roughs,  and  the  result  was 
broken  heads  and  wounds  which  might  have 
been  grave.  I  believe  we  even  delighted  in 
the  seriousness  of  our  wounds  as  bringing  us 
nearer  to  the  bravery  of  real  war.  All  through 
our  boyish  days  our  exploits  on  land  and  water 
were  invigorating  and  not  free  from  dan- 
ger. We  brothers  were  much  attached  to 
one  another,  and  lived  fairly  at  peace;   but 

*  M.  Leroy  -  Beaulieu  has  given  a  similar  instance  of  Ger- 
man patriotic  prejudice  on  tlie  part  of  a  German  Jew. 


312  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

there  was  one  word  wliicli  invariably  led  to  a 
fight,  i.e.^  any  doubt  cast  upon  our  concep- 
tion of  honor.  We  might  call  each  other  any 
name,  heap  opprobruim  of  any  kind  upon  one 
another,  it  did  not  lead  to  blows;  but  one 
word  mentioned  was  immediately  and  invari- 
ably followed  by  a  blow  straight  from  the 
shoulder ;  that  word  was  '  coward.' " 

I  give  this  instance,  not  that  it  is  remarka- 
ble, but  as  illustrating  as  well  as  any  other 
the  influence  which  a  country  and  an  age  has 
in  the  formation  of  character.  The  character 
of  this  man  was  greatly  influenced  by  the 
United  States,  and,  moreover,  the  United 
States  during  the  Civil  War;  and  in  so  far 
it  would  differ  from  a  character  formed  in 
the  same  country  during  a  different  period  of 
its  history.  But  this  man  was  a  Jew,  and  I 
venture  to  assert  that  thousands  of  Jews  in 
Europe  and  America  will  find  it  to  corre- 
spond in  its  essence  to  what  moved  them  as 
boys. 

The  Western  Jew  has  been  influenced  by 
the  ideas  of  conscience  and  honor,  which  M. 
Taine  ascribes  to  Christianity  ;  they,  as  we  all, 
have  been  nurtured  by  the  Romantic  spirit, 
beginning  with  Scott's  novels — perhaps  not  al- 


LEUOY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE    JEWS  313 

ways  for  the  good.  And  it  is  absurd,  in  con- 
sidering such  ideas  within  the  pale  of  our 
Western  communities,  to  speak  of  the  Western 
Jew  as  "  they  "  in  lieu  of  'Sve." 

Another  point  in  which  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu 
may  have  had  his  conclusions  with  regard  to 
the  physiology  and  psychology  of  the  Jews 
slightly  vitiated  (though  I  heartily  agree  with, 
and  admire,  most  of  w^hat  he  says  in  these  chap- 
ters) is  a  matter  of  fact  and  history — namely, 
the  position  wdiicli  he  assigns  to  the  Ghetto 
in  the  past  life  of  the  Jews — the  Ghetto  as 
the  symbol  of  misfortune  and  debasement. 
In  the  first  place,  I  believe  that  it  is  a  mistake 
to  think  that  all  the  Jews  lived  in  the  Ghetto. 
The  Ghetto  did  exist  during  some  periods  in 
some  of  the  capitals  of  the  mediaeval  world ;  but 
the  vast  number  of  Jew^s,  dispersed  about  the 
country  and  living  in  smaller  towns,  were  not 
thus  shut  in.  I  should  like  to  see  this  ques- 
tion carefully  examined.  I  have  just  received 
the  genealogy  of  a  Jewish  family,  and  among 
other  things  I  find  that  they  lived  in  the  self- 
same house  in  a  small  German  town  (one  of 
the  most  beautiful  houses  of  the  town)  contin- 
uously since  1680  ;  and  I  should  say  that  many 
instances  of  this  kind  might  be  found.     Fur- 


314  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

thennore,  I  believe  tliat  the  picture  of  the 
Ghetto  as  it  exists  in  the  mind  of  most  people, 
and  even  of  M.  Leroy-Beaulieii,  is  an  absolute- 
ly inaccurate  one.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  quite 
misleading  to  take  the  Ghetto  of  Kome,  Frank- 
fort, or  Yenice,  in  the  aspect  in  which  we  of 
modern  times  have  seen  them,  as  conveying 
any  adequate  idea  of  what  the  Ghetto  was 
when  it  really  was  a  Ghetto.  Since  the  re- 
strictions of  habitation  have  been  raised  from 
the  Jews  in  these  cities,  the  better  and  more 
prosperous  classes  have  all  left  these  quarters 
of  the  city.  The  result  is  that  they  were 
filled  merely  with  the  refuse  of  the  Jewish 
plebs,  who,  like  every  other  plebs,  will  not  im- 
press us  with  the  external  dignity  of  their 
life.  I  venture  to  believe  that  if  we  could 
walk  through  the  '' Juden  Gasse"  of  Frank- 
fort, and  perhaps  even  of  Kome,  of  some 
centuries  ago,  we  should  have  been  struck  by 
the  comparative  cleanliness  and  refinement, 
perhaps  even  luxury,  of  the  houses  and  of  the 
inhabitants.^  I  say  comparative  ;  and  here  lies 
another   point  which  must   be  remembered. 

*  The  house  of  the  Jew  of  Lincoln,  still  standing,  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  specimens  of  mediaeval  domestic  archi- 
tecture extant. 


LEROY-BEAULIKU    AND    THE    JEWS  315 

For  we  must  not  forget  that  the  mediseval 
cities  (I  am  not  speaking  of  the  castles  in  the 
country)  differed  vastly  from  our  own  in  ap- 
pearance, especially  as  regards  cleanliness,  com- 
fort, and  hygienic  arrangements.  The  picture 
which  we  receive  from  authors  and  other 
sources  of  the  traveller  struggling  through  the 
ill-paved,  muddy,  filthy  streets  of  such  a  city 
would  lead  me  to  find  their  parallel  in  the 
Ghetto  of  Rome  as  it  is  to-day  rather  than  in 
the  boulevards  of  modern  Paris. 

In  many  instances  it  might  even  be  main- 
tained that  the  houses  of  the  Jews  in  those 
days  were  the  best  and  cleanest ;  and  the  life 
within  these  houses  probably  corresponded  to 
this  finer  exterior.  So,  too,  the  influence  of 
the  Ghetto  may  not  have  been  as  dangerous 
to  the  formation  of  a  sturdy  character  as  we 
are  inclined  to  believe.  I  have  more  than 
once  insisted  upon  the  fact  that  too  much 
prominence  has  been  given  to  the  martyrology 
of  the  Jews  in  its  relation  to  their  mediaeval 
life  taken  as  a  whole.  The  persecutions  were 
few  and  far  between  as  regards  each  individual 
district,  and  computed  over  a  thousand  years. 
Every  country  suffered  from  warlike  devasta- 
tions and  all  that  followed  in  its  wake  without 


316  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

materially  affecting  the  hereditary  character 
of  the  people.  The  physical  life  of  the  Jews 
which  lay  between  these  periods  of  persecu- 
tion corresponded,  no  doubt,  in  its  fresh  and 
refined  vitality,  to  the  extant  intellectual  prod- 
ucts which  emanated  from  it.  It  is  also  a 
mistake  to  believe  that  all  the  Jews,  or  any 
great  portion  of  them,  in  the  Middle  Ages 
came  in  contact,  and  had  business,  with  haughty 
and  arrogant  princes  and  nobles  before  whom 
they  had  to  bend  their  back,  and  who  crushed 
down  their  pride  and  manliness.  Most  of  the 
Jews  really  lived  alone  and  by  themselves,  and 
they  had  their  own  standards  and  their  own 
pride,  which  were,  on  the  whole,  of  the  nobler 
kind.  The  proportion  of  those  who  had  to 
bend  their  backs  was  smaller  than  with  the 
Christian  nobility,  among  whom  there  were 
many  whose  whole  life  w^as  bound  up  with 
such  subserviency.  For  in  the  hierarchy  of 
the  feudal  world  there  was  hardly  one  man 
who  had  not  to  bend  his  back  officially  before 
his  superior.  This  is  especially  the  case  with 
those  in  the  immediate  service  of  the  monarch, 
w^hose  function  may  have  been  to  carry  the 
platter,  hand  the  cup,  or  hold  the  shirt.  And 
these  personal  offices  were  coupled  with  the 


LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE    JEWS  317 

most  pronounced  symbols  and  customs  of  ser- 
vility, and  were  the  ground  upon  which  the 
elevation  of  most  of  the  great  noble  families 
of  Europe  rested,  upon  which  their  distinction 
is  based.  They  could  not,  however,  as  could 
the  Jew,  after  he  had  prostrated  himself  be- 
fore the  monarch  with  whose  finances  he 
dealt,  or,  as  a  physician,  held  the  pulse  of  the 
decrepit  representative  of  God  on  earth,  prince 
spiritual  or  secular — they  could  not,  I  say,  re- 
turn to  their  own  quiet  homes  w^here  there 
existed  for  them  spiritual  standards  of  excel- 
lence independent  of  the  approval  of  the  crowd 
without.  Such  self-centredness,  however,  en- 
genders true  nobility  of  character. 

I  am  willing  to  admit  that,  in  many  of  its 
important  features,  the  idea  of  honor  common 
to  us  all  is  to  be  traced  back  to  mediaeval 
chivalry.  In  one  of  its  aspects  it  is  the  out- 
come of  extreme  individualism  strivino^  for 
the  glory  of  the  individual  as  distinguished 
from  the  mass  of  men  ;  it  is  aristocratic.  It  is 
thus  an  outcome  of  mediaeval  life  and  feudal 
times,  when  eacli  man  fought  by  himself  and 
lived  in  his  own  castle.  And  this  side  is  knit 
up  with  the  whole  conditions  of  feudal  life 
in  contradistinction  to  the  life  of  the  Greeks 


318  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

and  Romans,  and  the  life  of  our  modern  so- 
ciety with  its  ideal  of  humanitarianism.  Each 
man  then  wished  to  excel,  and  there  was  es- 
tablished a  common  code  of  moral  and  physi- 
cal excellence.  Still,  there  was  much  of  outer 
show,  of  unreality,  oi poitr-la-galUriedom^  of 
vulgarity  as  a  natural  outcome  of  this  spirit — 
it  is  the  parent  of  all  snobbishness.  The  Jew's 
life  was  generally  spiritualized.  His  pride 
and  honor,  it  is  true,  were  generally  not  phys- 
ical in  character ;  but  he  had,  and  has,  his 
honor  (Jcofet)^  his  decency,  his  dignity,  and  his 
self-respect. 

We  must,  however,  always  bear  in  mind 
that  all  these  manifestations  of  virtue  come 
from  the  same  fountain  -  head — it  is  the  over- 
coming of  self-indulgence,  in  which  the  fear 
of  pain  is  overpowered  by  the  desire  to  do  the 
right  thing.  The  higher  and  more  vivid  the 
imagination  and  the  power  of  realizing  conse- 
quences, the  greater  the  demand  upon  courage. 
The  outer  manifestations  differ  according  to 
the  channels  in  which  life  flows  ;  but  the  prin- 
ciple at  the  bottom  is  the  same.  And  it  is  on 
this  point  that  I  am  somewhat  at  issue  ^vith 
M.  Leroy-Beaulieu.  Whoever  is  possessed  of 
moral  courage  can  train  himself  into  the  per- 


LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE    JEi^^' -alO^ 

formance  of  acts  of  physical  courage  ;  but  it 
does  not  always  hold  good  tliat  he  who  pos- 
sesses physical  courage  is  proof  in  trials  of 
moral  valor.  And  if  any  weight  is  to  be  at- 
tached to  general  heredity  as  regards  whole 
classes  of  people,  then  the  Jew  possesses  the 
greatest  claim  to  the  heredity  of  these  quali- 
ties, wliich,  after  all,  give  moral  strength.  If 
the  following  passage  from  M.  Leroy-Beau- 
lieu's  book  is  accepted,  the  chances  for  the 
inheritance  of  spiritual  refinement  are  in  the 
Jew's  favor.     He  says  of  them  : 

"  Beside  the  Jews  the  oldest  of  the  old  Eu- 
ropean nations  are  youthful.  Which  of  our 
dynasties  or  of  our  feudal  families  would  dare 
to  compare  the  length  of  its  years  to  that  of 
the  house  of  Israel  ?  And  we  have  here  not 
only  an  antiquity  of  date.  Israel  is,  above  all, 
an  ancient  race  by  the  antiquity  of  its  culture. 
It  is  a  long  w^hile  (in  Jerusalem,  in  Babj^- 
lonia,  in  Alexandria),  since  for  the  sons  of 
Jacob  the  work  of  the  head  and  the  hard 
labor  of  the  brain  have  begun.  If  one  wishes 
to  consider  the  Jews  as  a  race,  here,  perhaps, 
is  the  central  point  of  importance :  it  is  the 
most  anciently  cultured  race  of  our  Mediter- 
ranean world.     While  the  civilization  of  this 


320  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

race  reaches  furthest  back,  its  culture  has  at 
the  same  time  experienced  least  interruption. 
Twenty  centuries  are  certainly  a  long  duration 
for  a  human  family.  "What,  in  this  respect, 
are  the  inheritors  of  our  ancient  iourgeoisie 
and  the  sons  of  the  Crusaders  compared  to 
the  Levy\s  sons  of  the  Levites,  and  the  nu- 
merous Cahen,  Cohen,  Kohn,  Kalin,  Coehn, 
whose  well -au then ticatecJ  ancestors,  the  co- 
hanim  of  the  Temple,  burned  incense  before 
the  Eternal  on  the  altars  of  perfume,  prepara- 
tory to  going,  in  the  shade  of  Babel,  to  dis- 
cuss the  origin  of  the  world  with  the  augurs 
of  Chaldea  and  the  magi  of  Iran. 

'*  The  antiquity  and  the  continuity  of  their 
intellectual  culture  is  (after  their  secular  se- 
lection) that  which,  in  my  opinion,  best  ex- 
plains the  Jews  and  the  place  taken  by  Israel 
in  our  societies.  They  have  come  before  us, 
they  are  our  elder  brothers.  Their  children 
learned  to  read  in  the  rolls  of  the  Thorah 
before  our  Latin  alphabet  was  fixed  —  long 
before  Cyril  and  Methodus  had  given  an  al- 
phabet to  the  Slavs,  before  Eunic  inscrip- 
tions were  known  to  the  Germanic  races  of 
the  North.  Compared  to  them  we  are  up- 
starts; they  give  us  the  lead  in  the  matter  of 


LEEOY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE   JEWS  321 

culture.  Enclose  them  as  mucli  as  we  would 
for  several  hundred  years  behind  the  walls  of 
the  Ghetto,  the  day  on  which  were  torn  the 
bars  from  their  prison  -  gate,  tliey  had  not 
much  trouble  in  catching  up  with  us  —  even 
on  the  roads  which  we  had  opened  without 
them." 

As  for  their  influence  upon  the  idealism  of 
modern  times,  they  can  but  strengthen  its  cur- 
rent. They  have  true  idealism  in  their  mar- 
row, by  which  I  mean  the  sacrifice  of  material 
desires  to  the  preservation  of  an  idea.  I  will 
venture  to  quote  what  I  have  myself  said  in 
the  second  chapter  of  this  book :  The  martyr- 
dom of  the  Jews  is  the  most  colossal  instance 
of  a  steadfastness  in  a  belief,  in  a  great  spirit- 
ual idea,  to  which  all  elements  of  life  and  all 
instincts  of  pleasure,  and  even  self-preserva- 
tion, are  sacrificed.  If  tliis  idealism  is  there, 
it  is  merely  a  matter  of  clear-sighted  recogni- 
tion in  what  channel  its  elevating  power  is  to 
be  turned.  And  I  believe  that  the  Jewish 
ideal  for  our  future  which  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu 
so  beautifully  depicts  is  one  held  by  many  (if 
not  most)  thoughtful  people  living  within  our 
Western  civilization ;  it  is  the  millennium  of 
human  love  and  fellowship,  anti-romantic  and 

21 


322  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

anti-feudal  in  its  character.  As  we  have  seen, 
the  Middle  Ages  contained  much  that  led  to 
the  worship  of  Mammon,  to  general  snobbery, 
and  anti -social  instincts.  The  lowering  and 
materializing  of  our  ideals  in  modern  times 
(which  I  believe  holds  good  but  for  one  small 
section  or  aspect  of  our  modern  life)  is,  as  M. 
Leroy  -  Beaulieu  has  shown,  in  no  way  due  to 
the  influence  of  the  Jews,  nor  is  it  in  part  to 
be  ascribed  to  what  he  calls  the  ''American 
spirit ;"  nor  do  I  believe  it  to  be  due  to  what  he 
calls  "  Neo- Paganism."  It  springs  from  nu- 
merous currents,  all  of  which  we  cannot  attempt 
to  enumerate  here.  But  the  main  causes  are, 
on  the  one  hand,  the  crumbling  of  older  stand- 
ards, containing  much  that  is  essentially^  S^^^j 
though  they  be  insufficient  for  our  times; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  misdirected  cur- 
rents of  modern  economical  forces  and  insti- 
tutions. 

It  is  also  a  difficult  matter  to  apply  so  deli- 
cate a  term  as  conscience  to  a  race,  or  even  a 
nation.  Conscience  is  a  sense  of  abstract  duty 
developed  into  a  moral  faculty,  which  guides 
and  judges  our  actions.  It  is  called  into  activ- 
ity to  enable  us  to  estimate  the  gap  between 
our  actual  life  and  our  ideal  life.     The  Jews 


LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE    JEWS  323 

have  had  this  sense  of  duty  to  the  highest 
degree ;  not  so  much  the  Biblical  Jews  as  the 
mediaeval  and  modern  Jews.  They  may  not 
always  have  turned  it  into  definite  social  chan- 
nels, they  may  not  have  contributed  as  much 
to  the  refinement  of  our  social  conscience  as 
they  did  to  our  broader  moral  conscience  ;  but 
this  is  an  historical  accident. 

Practical  conscience,  we  will  find  in  looking 
about  us,  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  race  and 
racial  inheritance  as  it  is  a  matter  of  tradition 
within  the  various  vocations.  Certain  trades 
and  professions  have  developed  their  own 
standards  of  right  and  wrong  —  some  higher, 
some  lower:  horse  -  dealing,  art -dealing,  pub- 
lishing have  in  some  countries  and  ages  de- 
veloped different  standards  of  honesty  from 
other  trades,  and  so  in  the  many  other  walks 
of  life.  The  occupations  of  the  Jews  present 
the  greatest  variety  now,  and  in  the  past,  as 
w^e  have  seen,  they  have  been  accidental  and 
not  essential  to  the  inner  nature  of  that  peo- 
ple. But  what  is  not  accidental  and  not  vacil- 
lating is  the  initial  sense  of  abstract  duty, 
the  vitality  of  conscience ;  and  with  regard  to 
these  the  conditions  of  Jewish  life  have  ever 
been  most  favorable. 


324  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

Honor  is  practical  conscience,  conscience 
carried  into  action ;  and  the  man  of  honor  is 
one  in  whom  this  practical  conscience  has  be- 
come second  nature,  an  ineradicable  habit. 
But  we  must  all  realize  how  frequent  are  the 
changes  in  the  denotation  of  this  term  honor. 
Each  period  and  every  country  has  its  pecul- 
iar conception  of  it,  and  the  one  age  may 
oppose  or  ridicule  the  conception  held  by 
another,  as  one  country  may  deny  the  code  of 
its  neighbor.  One  country  may  consider  it  to 
be  a  stern  dictate  of  the  code  of  honor  to 
fight  a  duel  in  satisfaction  of  wounded  vanity; 
while  another  country  may  laugh  it  away. 
But  what  always  remains,  and  will  remain,  is 
the  connotation  of  honor  —  the  practical  con- 
science as  affecting  our  common  social  life,  so 
effective  that  we  are  prepared  to  give  up  our 
lives  in  order  to  follow  its  dictates.  The 
Jews  have  constantly  and  continuously  made 
this  sacrifice  for  things  spiritual  which  they 
valued  highly. 

And  now  let  us  examine  the  subtler  and 
more  delicate  developments  of  such  principles 
in  the  lighter  aspects  of  our  social  life,  the 
question  of  the  parvenu.  It  is  true  that  many 
Jews  have  "worked  their  way  up";  but  it  has 


LEKOY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE    JEWS  325 

not  been  so  great  a  step  for  tliem  to  make,  as 
I  have  endeavored  to  show  in  the  third  chap- 
ter. The  Jewish  jparvenu  and  the  Christian 
parvenu  are  very  different  things,  because 
the  Jews  have  had  a  standard  of  their  own, 
and  one  wliich  was  not  compared  to  others  and 
then  considered  second  rate.  They  may  have 
been  foreigners  to  the  great  social  world  ;  bnt 
as  such  they  have  never  had  to  unlearn  the 
habit  of  dropping  h's ;  in  so  far  they  have 
started  unhampered.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  have  inherited  that  inner  refinement 
which  the  poor  "  Talmud-yude"  was  possessed 
of  as  a  Jew.  They  were  not  illiterate  to  start 
with,  nor  had  they  to  shed  the  thick  skin 
of  coarseness  ;  but,  as  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu  has 
put  it,  "  they  are  the  most  anciently  cultured 
race." 

But  let  us  look  about  us  in  European  and 
American  society,  and  where  do  we  not  find 
i\\Q  parvenu  ?  Do  you  require  many  genera- 
tions of  continuous  affluence  and  conditions  of 
cultured  life  ?  I  believe  that  in  Europe,  as 
well  as  in  America,  you  would  find  it  hard  to 
discover  a  society  which  is  to  the  greater  part 
made  up  of  members  who  could  point  to  circum- 
stances where  continuously  for  many  genera- 


326  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

tions  the  repose,  affluence,  and  leisure  could 
act  in  such  a  way  as  to  have,  by  any  theory  of 
inheritance,  affected  the  organism  sufficiently 
to  transmit  these  qualities,  even  as  a  tradition, 
in  one  family. 

What  does  le  monde  mean  when  applied  to 
modern  European  societies,  except  when  we 
meet  with  it  in  old-fashioned  novels  ?  Does 
this  world  really  exist  so  that  we  can  define  it 
accurately,  and  point  at  it  with  our  fingers? 
I  believe  it  does  not.  The  old  monde  is  com- 
pletely disorganized,  owing  to  many  causes : 
First,  there  is  the  dying  out  of  the  feudal 
spirit,  and  the  clear-cut  limitations  which  it 
gave.  And  I  even  doubt  whether,  according 
to  our  present  notions,  feudalism  by  itself 
could  create  a  distinguished  monde  *  for,  be- 
sides its  inherent  dangers  in  tending  towards 
snobbishness,  it  required  the  centre  of  a  court 
and  a  metropolis  for  the  formation  of  salons 
where  some  distinction  and  refinement  might 
be  infused  into  the  country  squire  and  the 
Land-junker.  Furthermore,  the  economical 
changes  since  the  French  Revolution  have 
shifted  the  spheres  of  wealth  and  prosperity. 
An  impoverished  Faubourg  Saint  -  Germain 
becomes  ridiculously  assertive,  and  approaches 


LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE    JEWS  327 

dangerously  near  to  the  shabby  genteel.  And, 
finally,  our  centres  of  life  have  become  too 
large.  The  capitals  of  Europe  have  not  one 
society,  one  monde^  but  a  great  many.  More- 
over, the  best,  the  most  refined,  the  most 
'^ homme-du-mondish^''^  are  not  always  those 
sets  which  are  grossly  and  manifestly  so.  I 
believe  my  experience  will  be  borne  out  in 
looking  into  the  monde  of  the  European  capi- 
tals, perhaps  even  of  America,  that  those  sets 
which  are  socially  most  well-bred  are  not  al- 
ways, and  perhaps  even  not  generally,  found 
among  those  which  are  on  the  face  of  it  the 
leaders  of  society.  This  was,  perhaps,  not  the 
case  in  former  years.  Though  in  those  days 
the  educated  hoiirgeois  might  claim  certain 
moral  and  intellectual  qualities  as  being  espe- 
cially his  own,  he  would  admit  that  in  the  social 
refinement  of  manners,  in  physical  grace,  in 
tact  and  all  that  it  means,  the  gentleman,  the 
nobleman,  or  cavalier  of  his  day  was  superior 
to  him.  But  now,  can  we  truthfully  say  that 
this  is  the  case  ?  The  interests  of  the  stock- 
exchange  (not  owing  to  the  defilement  of  the 
individual  intruders  from  that  body,  whether 
Jews  or  Gentiles)  have  crept  into  the  minds 
and  have  left  a  stamp  upon  the  manners  and 


328  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

the  tone  of  intercourse.  The  newspapers, 
especially  the  society  papers,  and  the  vulgar 
publicity  to  which  they  lead,  have  introduced 
that  self-consciousness  which  we  ascribe  to  the 
most  pronounced  parvenu.  The  intercourse 
with  grooms  and  jockeys  have  converted  the 
knight  who  rode  his  horse  in  the  tourney  with 
some  idea  of  risk  into  a  swaggering  loiterer  in 
stables  and  on  race-courses,  with  the  stupidity 
of  a  jockey,  the  acumen  of  a  book-maker,  and 
the  market-place  vanity  of  a  gargon  coiffeur. 
What  manners  or  grace  of  bearing  have  those 
of  i\\Q  jeunesse  d^oree  of  London,  Paris,  Ber- 
lin, Vienna,  or  Newport  ?  Awkward  and  stu- 
pidly shy,  if  not  coarse  and  swaggering.  Illit- 
erate and  gross  in  taste,  selling  libraries  and 
works  of  art  which  their  ancestors  have  col- 
lected, and  looking  upon  the  refined  Jew  or 
merchant  who  buys  them  for  his  house  as  a 
parvenu  or  an  outsider.  And  many  of  the 
recognized  circles  of  highest  social  life  in  the 
European  capitals,  what  is  their  aggregate 
tone  ?  After  all,  if  we  are  truthful,  how  hour- 
geois^  how  provincial,  they  are ;  how  dependent 
upon  their  surroundings  and  the  standards  of 
their  own  material  life  !  The  homme  du  monde 
is,  after  all,  he  who  has  seen  the  world,  as  op- 


LEROY-BEAULIEU   AND    THE    JEWS  329 

posed  to  the  provincial  and  Spicier ;  who  is  at 
home  in  all  sets  and  is  always  above  each ;  who 
conforms,  but  is  not  held  by  the  narrow  codes, 
knowing  the  wider  circles ;  who  is  tolerant, 
because  he  knows  how  relative  all  these  views 
are. 

Now,  the  best  tone,  the  best  manners,  the 
most  refined  salons  are  in  most  capitals  found 
in  sets  that  (fortunately  for  them)  are  not  no- 
ticed in  society  papers;  but  one  has  met  with 
social  refinement  in  families  that  are  not 
known  to  the  outer  world  and  shrink  from  it, 
and  one  has  often  found  this  in  Jewish  fam- 
ilies. 

I  would  ask  the  question,  how  many  gentle- 
men and  gentlewomen  among  the  hundreds, 
perhaps  thousands,  whom  we  have  met  claim- 
ing these  epithets  will  stand  all  the  tests  on 
the  long-run  ?  How  many  who  haVe  inner 
nobility  and  refinement  of  taste  with  outer 
grace  of  demeanor,  considerateness,  and  tact ; 
whose  intellectual  education  embraces,  at  least 
as  regards  their  sympathies,  all  the  varied 
spheres  of  noble  mental  effort ;  whose  moral 
culture  is  so  deep  and  true  that  they  can  afford 
to  be  light  and  tolerant  on  the  surface  of  social 
conduct  without  calling  in  the  need  of  the 


330  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

force-pumps,  bucketing  up  priggishness  from 
the  heavy  deposit  of  principles  at  the  bottom 
of  their  conscience  ;  whose  nature  is  strung 
so  that  all  the  notes  are  true  in  tone  ;  from 
whom  we  have  never  received  a  jar  from 
their  blank  limitation  or  from  tortuous  mal- 
formation of  taste,  from  meanness  or  grossness 
— a  sudden  disappointment  or  shock  to  the 
best  cravings  within  us  putting  us  out  of 
tune  for  a  whole  day,  like  an  ugly  picture  or  a 
discordant  sound  ?  How  many  have  you  met, 
of  whatever  class  of  society  you  may  think  ? 
And  the  wrestling  for  distinction  and  display 
pointed  out  by  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu,  the  gross- 
ness of  the  parvenu  he  refers  to,  have  you  not 
found  some,  if  not  all  of  them,  among  your 
closest  friends  of  the  highest  social  distinction  ? 
They  may  sometimes  be  found  among  dukes 
and  nobles  whose  ancestors  go  back  to  the 
crusaders  and  among  princes  of  the  blood. 
Thackeray  has  seen  them  and  has  immortalized 
them.  An  act  such  as  the  attempt  to  write  a 
book  defending  a  people  from  abuse,  as  has 
been  written  by  M.  Leroy-Eeaiilieu,  the  tone 
of  fairness,  refinement,  and  depth  of  sympathy 
with  which  it  is  pervaded,  brings  me  nearer 
in  mind  to  the  picture  of  a  true  gentleman, 


LEEOY-BEAULIEU    AND   THE    JEWS  331 

sanspeur  et  sans  rejprocTie^  than  many  a  glar- 
ing act  of  valor,  or  a  life  passed  among  the 
most  refined  brilliancy  of  modern  social  life. 

A  gentleman  is,  after  all,  as  has  so  often 
been  said,  made  by  the  kindness  of  the  heart, 
the  tenderness  within  strength,  the  alma  gen- 
til.  Tact  is  the  rapid  and  true  action  direct- 
ed by  ready  sympathy,  which  keeps  us  from 
saying  or  doing  what  will  harm  or  cause 
discomfort  to  our  neighbors — it  is  loving- 
kindness  and  unselfishness  carried  into  our 
slightest  actions.  Having  these,  any  man 
may  become  a  gentleman  in  any  sense.  Fail- 
ing these,  he  will  never  be  a  true  gentleman, 
however  favorable  the  circumstances.  But 
with  them  and  with  intellectual  refinement 
and  culture,  put  a  boy  into  noble  social  sur- 
roundings, and  he  will  become  an  ornament 
to  every  salon  into  which  he  steps.  But  take 
care  that  you  do  not  remind  him  of  the  fact 
that  he  is  tolerated ! 

Here  lies  the  difliGulty.  No  man  can  dis- 
play these  social  qualities,  nor  can  he  avoid 
some  appearance  of  snobbishness,  if  by  your 
action  you  make  the  social  ground  upon  which 
he  stands  and  moves  unsteady,  and  rob  him 
of  the  grace  and  lightness  of  intercourse.     He 


332  THE    JEWISH    QUESTION 

will  be  bound  to  become  assertive  in  some  di- 
rection and  deprived  of  his  social  ease;  The 
Jews  of  Paris,  Berlin,  and  London  had  refined 
salons  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  many  of 
them  were,  and  are,  ornaments  to  any  society ; 
but  remind  them  of  their  exceptional  posi- 
tion, let  them  realize  that,  however  absurd 
and  unjust,  the  basis  upon  which  they  stand 
is  doubtful,  and  you  will  produce  a  conscious- 
ness which  will  lead  to  assertion,  and  to  a  sen- 
sitiveness and  reticence  which  act  almost  in 
the  same  way.  ''How  often  are  we  thought 
proud  and  arrogant,"  I  was  told  by  a  Jew, 
"  when  we  retire  and  refuse  to  join  in  with 
the  others !  But  can  we  be  treated  as  excep- 
tions with  a  superadded  patronizing  affability 
on  the  part  of  our  social  equals  who  make  this 
exception  ?" 

I  believe  M.  Leroy  -  Beaulieu  was  wrong 
when  he  spoke  of  his  Jewish  compatriots  as 
"  they,"  even  to  praise  them.  "What  must  the 
feelings  of  his  Jewish  friends  be  when  he 
dwells  upon  the  high  spiritual  quality  of  the 
Jew,  prefacing  it  by  "  ce  joetit  juifP'^  How 
would  he  like  an  Englishman  to  dwell  upon  a 
whole  catalogue  of  French  virtues  in  assuring 
the  world  that  "that   little  Frenchman   has, 


LEEOY-BEAULIEU    AND   THE    JEWS  333 

after  all,  conferred  the  greatest  boon  upon 
humanity  through  his  French  Eevolution," 
etc.? 

No,  leave  your  Jewish  compatriots  alone, 
and  you  will  be  astonished  at  the  number  of 
cultured  and  refined  men  and  women  among 
them. 

They  exist,  those  gentlemen  and  gentle- 
women possessed  of  noble,  generous,  and  brave 
hearts,  with  refined  feelings,  guided  by  wide 
minds,  and  all  attuned  into  harmony  by  nat- 
ural grace  of  manner ;  they  exist,  but  singly, 
not  in  masses.  They  are  scattered  through  all 
nations  and  sets,  they  form  a  great  interna- 
tional society. 

The  wider  our  circle  of  humanity,  the  more 
active  our  social  feeling,  the  more  individual 
must  our  judgment  of  man  become  for  "  so- 
cial "  purposes.  We  do  not  admit  people  into 
our  circles  in  classes  or  tribes,  nor  should  we 
choose  this  method  of  exclusion.  The  Occi- 
dental Jew  must  be  dealt  with  individually,  as 
an  ordinary  member  of  the  community  among 
which  he  lives.  If  any  virtue  which  he  pos- 
sesses has  come  to  him  by  racial  heredity,  this 
will  be  to  his  advantage,  and  is  for  him  a 
matter  of  his  inner  consciousness,  to  remem- 


334  THE   JEWISH    QUESTION 

ber  this  with  a  feeling  of  piety  towards  his 
progenitors. 

But  I  have  been  doubting,  while  writing  this 
book  and  while  reading  M.  Leroy  -  Beaulieu*s 
work,  whether,  in  common  with  many  modern 
authors  in  other  domains,  we  have  not  been 
exaggerating  the  importance  of  heredity  ?  The 
newness  of  the  discovery  in  the  natural  and 
medical  sciences  has,  as  is  not  infrequently  the 
case,  led  to  a  premature  application  of  these 
delicate  results  of  theory  to  the  complicated 
body  of  practical  social  plienomena.  It  is  not 
easy  to  gauge  the  result  of  racial  heredity  in 
the  mind  and  character,  the  actions  and  gen- 
eral deportment  of  individuals.  In  such  an 
attempt  we  may  make  many  a  bhmder.  And, 
after  all,  what  is  tlie  gain  of  such  speculation  ? 
But  what  we  do  realize  more  and  more  in 
studying  nations  and  social  communities  is 
the  force  of  tradition  and  the  manner  in 
which  it  is  handed  down.  These  traditions 
have  lasting  power  and  vitality,  and  it  is  our 
duty  to  select  from  them  —  to  confirm,  sup- 
port, and  to  increase  the  vitality  of  those  that 
are  good,  and  to  counteract,  and,  if  possible, 
extirpate,  those  that  are  bad. 

And  when  we  think  of  the  Jews,  we  must 


LEROY-BEAULIEU    AND    THE    JEWS  335 

admit  the  great  truth  which  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu 
has  so  forcibly  put:  that  their  virtues  are 
their  own,  their  vices  are  our  making.  Their 
virtues  are  the  result  of  Judaic  teaching  and 
the  elements  essential  to  Judaism  ;  their  vices 
are  the  result  of  circumstances  which  the 
mediaeval  world  massed  about  their  life.  It 
is  our  duty  to  clear  away  this  mass  of  vicious 
circumstance,  and  to  give  free  play  to  the  in- 
herent, righteous  vigor  of  this,  the  most  an- 
cient of  cultured  peoples. 


THE   END 


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